


What do we do now?

by Swellwriting



Series: What do we do now? [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marauders Era - Fandom, The Marauders - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Runaway AU, Series, roadtrip au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-03-10 05:00:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18931759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swellwriting/pseuds/Swellwriting
Summary: After the death of James and Lily, marking the end of the war, how will life change for those who loved them? Remus is stuck wondering what to do next, Y/n is in the exact same boat. With all their friends dead or imprisoned and both being denied custody of baby Harry, what will these two mere acquaintances do? When everything seems so hopeless how will they make life worthwhile?Will they be able to just continue on with life without their friends and knowing that Harry is stuck living an unhappy life he doesn’t deserve?Of all the things that they could do, running away is the least helpful, but that’s exactly what they do anyways.





	1. The Funeral

**Author's Note:**

> Part One- The Funeral.
> 
> A/N: I be making my own rules for how secret keepers work because fuck canon I don't understand half of Jkr’s rules! I know more about Dumbledore's sex life than I do about secret keepers, okay I’ll shut up, please enjoy part 1!!)
> 
> Word Count: 2.5k
> 
> Warnings: None, aside from mention of death? But that’s sort of a given.

 

The church bells rang loudly filling the silent room. Tears fell numbly down the girl’s face and she squeezed her hands together to keep herself calm, though everyone around her probably felt the exact same way.

She spared a glance up at the two caskets, their bodies lying inside but she couldn't bear to look at them. In a weird sort of backwards totally unlucky luck, they were killed by the killing curse which leaves no visible marks on the body. This was somehow worse, they probably looked like they were sleeping, looked like they were completely okay. 

If she walked up to the caskets and looked at them it wouldn't look much different from when they fell asleep on the couch on movie nights, or what they looked like in the early hours of the morning when Harry was first born and she would go over to visit them to find they had been sleeping on the couch all night, in each other's lazy embrace.

“The Potters are survived by their son Harry Potter, who could not be here today, as well as their cousin Y/n Potter and many friends who have gathered here today to remember them.” A man spoke at the front of the room, Y/n winced at the mention of her name, she didn’t want any attention brought on her.

Lily and Y/n had connected so fast, and she and James had always been close, they were each other’s only cousins after all. With James’ parents and her parents long dead she was his only family member in attendance, this made her feel even more alone.

There was one other person in attendance that might feel as lonely as she did, but perhaps even more heartbroken. 

The story was everywhere, Y/n had heard it from whispers in the street and in news headlines. James and Lily were killed by Voldemort, they were in hiding which she was aware of, but Harry had survived. The worst part was that it was their friend Sirius, Harry’s godfather who she had met on occasion, was their secret keeper. This meant it must have been him who gave them away to the Dark Lord, she had heard things about the Black family so she wasn't at all surprised. 

After giving away their secret he went and killed another one of their close friends, Peter Pettigrew. She couldn't finish reading the news article that explained how gruesome it was. This left their other friend Remus, who was currently sat one row behind her, alone. 

She couldn't imagine how that would feel. He had no one, he had lost so many people at once and just the thought of it broke her heart. She had heard that many of their other somewhat close friends had died recently too, that girl Marlene who was always super friendly to her when she was around and made her feel welcome. She had heard what had happened to Alice and Frank, the cute couple who had a baby Harry’s age, she wondered what would happen to their son now, after what terrible torture they had been put through.

She kept staring at the wall to her left, avoiding looking at the front of the room and avoiding looking behind her. Remus was sat with his back hunched over like usual, trying to hide from the peering eyes. The eyes of people who knew, they knew every detail of his current life, they felt bad for him, they hugged him tight even though they barely knew him, they shook his hand, directed their empty apologies at him. 

He got a weird amount of attention at the funeral, so did she. The two of them served as the only close friends or family members who showed up. Lily's parents were dead and her sister, who had gotten custody of Harry, didn't bother to show up, meaning Harry wasn't there to get any of the doting attention either. It was like a spotlight had been cast on her and Remus as the people for everyone to pass their condolences onto, it was unfair and really too much to handle for either of them at this point.

After the ceremony there was a small gathering, food and beverages were served and people stood around talking, sharing memories. Y/n wasn't even sure who had organized this whole thing, she didn't bother to even think about it. After a few too many people came up to her, hugging and apologizing, she decided to make her way over to stand beside Remus, she tried to be as normal as possible though she barely knew this person aside from seeing him at Lily and James’ house or passing him in the hallways at Hogwarts.

“I guess it's better I stand next to you, save people the work of having to find us separately.” She tried to joke but it didn't come out as a joke and didn't feel like one.

“What?” Remus asked as he clearly zoned back in from wherever his mind was at.

“I'm just saying, people seem to have deemed us as the mourners, they keep hugging both of us and telling us all this gushy “I'm so sorry for your loss” stuff, it's just easier for us to endure it at one time, together.”

“Oh, I guess you're right, I honestly haven't even been paying much attention to anything happening, people just hug me and I let them, and I hate hugs.”

She wanted to bring up that the last time she had seen Remus he had baby Harry on his back with his tiny arms trying to wrap themselves around Remus’ broad yet slouched shoulders, he didn't seem to mind that type of hug. But it wasn't a proper thing to bring up, she could tell he was already upset enough. She decided to just change the subject instead.

“Do you know who organized this? Because I sure as hell didn’t.” Y/n declared as she took a sip from the obnoxiously bubbly drink in her hand, putting it down on a table with a disgusted frown.

“I'm pretty sure it was Dumbledore, though I think Hagrid was in charge of the food.”

“Really? I didn't see any rock cakes out for dessert.”

Remus didn't laugh, he more of exhaled through his nose, amused by her joke but too numb to actually let it distract him, to make him actually laugh.

“So what are you up to now?” She tried to ask, unsure of what Remus’ life was like at all.

“Now? Do you mean after all my friends have been murdered or imprisoned? Nothing. They took care of me for the most part, I'm useless on my own. The only people I have left are people who know me enough to judge me for not having a job or money but don't know me well enough to actually care or help me. Honestly, I've been debating just packing up and leaving.” Remus’ confessions were tough, honest and brutal. She was sure that if he wasn't so broken and so weak at this moment that he wouldn’t have said a word of that to her.

“Runaway?” She asked, prodding him for more of an explanation.

“In simpler terms, yes.” They both halted the conversation as some people they half recognized from Hogwarts came to greet them both. Giving her a moment to think over what he had confessed, she had to be honest, she had sort of thought the same thing, the reason she had asked him what he was doing was because she had no clue what to do with her life, how to move on after the war.

“Honestly that doesn't sound like a bad idea, I'm considering it now too. Want a travelling companion?”

“You can't be serious,” he furrowed his brows like he was trying to figure out if she was just mocking him, “you would leave everything behind?”

“Everything? I can't seem to get a job, not one that I won't absolutely hate anyways. Not to mention I have nothing tying me down here. When the war was going on I had something to do, I was always helping Lily with Harry and now they won't even let me be a part of his life since I have no legal rights to him. Everything I look at reminds me of them, they were my only family, I never had any real friends. There's nothing holding me here either.”

“Okay,” he replied flatly.

“Okay? Okay, what?” She asked wondering how that was a sensible response to what she had just said.

“If you want to come, you can.” Remus wasn't sure what brought him to say yes, maybe it was because if he truly tried to do it by himself it would never happen, he would never do it but if he had her there to push him to do it then maybe he could leave. 

Maybe it was the feeling of hopelessness and loneliness and the scary feeling of simultaneously feeling nothing at all that allowed him to say yes to let her come. Y/n was really all he had left that connected to James and Lily, maybe he wanted to hold onto that too, or maybe it was just because she was the only person who could possibly relate to how he felt and wasn’t going to treat him like a damn widow. 

Remus was also in a weird place mentally, he wasn't the same person he was around his friends, maybe losing them spiralled him into this state of mind, this state of being. He felt sadness and loneliness but he also felt nothing. He was very closed off emotionally and he had been ever since he had to watch his mother die slowly and painfully of sickness, he felt no love or attraction to anyone, no need to fall in love or build relationships with people. The ones he did have he just lost, so there would be no worry about travelling with her. He wouldn’t fall in love with her because he didn't feel love, he didn't feel anything.

“Really? I didn't think you'd say yes, okay so you have a car right? Let's embrace our muggle halves, let’s just road trip, drive until we run out of road.” She said, moving her hand like she was looking at a vast open road instead of a stuffy small church hall.

“Wait what about money, what about-” he started but she interrupted him, halting his worries. 

“No thinking, just doing!”

“Okay do you wanna leave right when this is over?” He asked as he looked around.

“No, let's leave right now, fuck them they don't need us here, they are only being so nice to us to make themselves feel better, it sure as hell isn't making me feel better and I know you hate it so let's go.” Y/n exclaimed and started walking right for the door, Remus watched her walk out, watched her leave out the door and quickly stumbled over himself to follow her.

When Remus met Y/n outside she didn't wait for him to talk, she just grabbed his hand and took her wand out, apparating away. She brought him to her house, landing in the living room. Her house was small, old looking, he wondered how she afforded it on her own though.

“This was my parent's house.” She explained like she could read his thoughts. 

Remus walked to look out the window recognizing a familiar street, “is this?”

“Yeah, I live two houses down from them, or I  _ did _ at least.”

“I never knew that.”

“Yeah, I wasn't home, when it happened. If I was I like to think I would have heard it, I could have-”

“You'd be dead Y/n. None of this is your fault, they didn't make you their secret keeper, they didn't make you Harry’s godparent and that was their fault, you had no control over their decisions.” Remus explained calmly like he had spent the last few days blaming himself as well, like this was a familiar thought for him.

“Thanks,” she muttered and he shrugged it off, “you can understand why I want to leave then?”

He nodded in response, not really wanting to say anything further. Secret keepers and Fidelus charms were tricky magic, complicated. Although Sirius would have been the only one to know that the Potters were hiding there, she would have known that that was “The Potter's” house, he didn't understand how the secret would have worked for her so when she came downstairs with a small packed bag of stuff he asked. “So how did it work, the secret. They were hiding right next to you, or did Sirius let you in on the secret?”

“It's hard to really define, it’s like I knew in my mind when I looked at the house that it was my cousin's house, like I knew that my aunt and uncle used to live there too. Since Lily and James had been living there for a while without the charm I used to go there all the time and then I just stopped and I didn't know why. It was like I would look at their house and think to myself “they aren't there or they aren't home right now” and then I wouldn't think anything further of it. But when I came home later that night I saw everything and it was like the secret had been revealed but  _ not _ at the same time. It’s like I didn't know they were there that whole time until I saw them being removed from the property, then it all clicked. They were right in front of me the whole time, there was a whole week I didn't see them because of the charm because Sirius never told me the location himself like he was supposed to. I felt like they were so far away but they were right there. Now I look out my window and it feels similar to that but worse, because now I don't  _ think _ they might be there, I  _ know _ that they aren't.”

Remus stared out the window, stared at the house that would never look the same to him, thinking over how she must have felt looking at it, “We should go,” he almost whispered before grabbing her arm and apparating away.

They arrived in a very small looking house, smaller than Y/n’s and much more run down. It was messy, dusty and very unorganized but she couldn’t blame him. She thought she maybe saw scratch marks in the walls but decided not to ask him about it. 

Remus was ashamed to show her where he lived but he was very clear with her at the funeral that he had nothing, and he clearly meant it. It didn't take him long to grab his things, he grabbed a few sweaters, he dumped out a cup that held a mix of change and opened his cupboards only managing to find a few scarce bars of chocolate. He shook the keys in his hand in front of her face and she tried to make it seem like she wasn’t just watching his every move.

Remus walked over to the door. “Let's go.” 


	2. Part 2 - Runaways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: ThEre wAS oNLy ONe bEd
> 
> Word Count: 2.3k

The two walked out of Remus’ small house and got into the car, Remus took the driver’s seat because he wasn’t even sure if she knew how to drive. Y/n threw both their bags into the back seat and Remus pulled away from the house driving down the street until he reached a split road.

“Right or left?” He asked as he examined both ways.

“Uhm lets just head left and then keep going as far as we can, I have no real destination in mind just sort of, anywhere but here.”

Remus nodded and signalled before turning left on the empty road. The radio in the car was broken but a quick spell later and Y/n had it working again.

“I don’t know why I never thought to just use magic to fix that stupid thing,” Remus said.

“Where did you get this car anyway?”

“It was my dad’s.”

Y/n was a bit nervous to ask, given the state that the recent war had left things in, he could be dead, missing or in Azkaban for all she knew, but she asked anyway, “And he is?”

“Dead. My mum too.”

“Were they older? Like mine and James’ parents both were?” She asked though it was uncommon, both James’ parents and her parents had both decided to have a single child at an older age than most, it wasn’t too weird since they ended up luckily having a cousin the same age.

“Not particularly.”

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to?” She said hoping this wasn’t a touchy subject for him.

“There’s nothing to talk about, they are dead, they left me this car and nothing else. And the car is a piece of junk mostly.”

“It’s better than my non-existent car.”

“Well, they aren’t really required in the magic world.” Remus shrugged, half paying attention to her and half on the road.

The long road divided a green field that stretched for miles, it was the type of backcountry where the only things they passed were small barns and broken down stone buildings that probably had not been used in centuries. The amount of conversation that flowed between them was good, it was half forced but half natural. The silence wasn’t deafening and the forced bits of conversation weren’t empty, the thoughts that lingered at the back of their minds during silence were what pushed the conversation.

After a few minutes of this Y/n decided she couldn’t handle it anymore, she couldn’t handle thinking about how much fun it would be to have their mutual friends in the back seat. She let her mind slip, a weakness inside her let her mind drift to imagining taking Harry on his first road trip, her throat tightened at the thought and she quickly let whatever came to mind fall off her chapped lips. “I much prefer driving opposed to apparating, it’s kind of fun.”

“Says the one in the passenger seat.”

“I’d drive if I had a license, and if you let me.”

“Do you know how?” He asked.

“No, but I reckon you could teach me sometime. I’m sure we will get bored and need something to occupy our time, or if we need some excitement you can let me drive on the highway with no lessons and see what happens!”

“I’ll think about the first half of that.” He said with a chuckle as he turned the radio up and the two of them fell back into a comfortable silence, she instead imagined what driving the car would be like.

When it started getting late they decided to pull into a small shitty motel, they didn’t have much money between them so their only other option would be to sleep in the car.

“Do we have enough money for this?” Remus asked as he put the car in park and rolled the windows up.

“I mean for now we do. I have no idea what we will do in a weeks time, maybe we can just sneak out without paying?” Y/n suggested, mostly joking and trying to see where Remus’ morals lied since she didn’t actually know him very well.

“I’d rather not.”

“Boring!” She teased as she reached in the backseat grabbing both bags, following Remus to the front office.

“How many beds?” The lady asked, she sounded bored and uninterested in any stories of travel that they could possibly give her.

“Uh,” Remus stuttered and looked at Y/n for confirmation.

“Just one is fine.” She chimed in and Remus looked relieved that she spoke up and decided so easily. She gave them a total which Y/n counted out and placed on the counter and the lady slid a key to them, pointing down the hallway without another word or question.

Remus took the bags from her hands and walked down the hallway, she followed closely behind as he opened the door and let her inside.

They both sort of halted realizing they would actually have to be sleeping in this bed together, she felt the need to explain her decision.

“I just said one bed because it would be like half the price, and I figured we were beside each other in the car so like, it’s no big deal.”

“Yeah, I don’t mind.” Remus casually replied, but he did mind. Remus didn’t want to share a bed with her, now that it was right in front of him he realized the drastic event. Though it meant nothing for two people, borderline friends to share a bed it was still a strange situation. Yes, he had shared a room with his, now dead or imprisoned, friends back in Hogwarts but he had never shared a bed with anyone, never mind a girl.

In her mind she was going through a similar whirlwind of thoughts, what happens if she cuddles up to him in her sleep, she was so used to cuddling her pillows at night that maybe by instinct she would pull him close, that would make things awkward in the morning.

They both stood there unsure of what to do next, it was late and Remus was very tired after driving nowhere all day, but she was also very hungry so she broke the silence.

“Do you wanna go get some food, there’s a little restaurant next door I’m sure it’s dirt cheap.” Remus nodded and they left the room and made their way to the small restaurant, she got a small booth and sat across from him as the waitress walked over right away.

“Hi Honey’s, what can I get you to drink?”

“Diet coke please.” She answered smiling back at the surprisingly cheery lady for this hour of the night.

“Coffee,” Remus answered after her.

“Coffee? Don’t you want to sleep?” Y/n asked as the waitress stood there unsure of what to do.

“Oh right, decaf please.” Remus corrected himself and the waitress hummed before leaving with a twirl.

“You drink coffee…for the taste?” Y/n asked as she looked through the menu.

“Yes? Why? Are you not a coffee drinker. I doubt Diet Coke is any better for helping you sleep.”

“I’m immune to any of the effects of Diet Coke, I’m pretty sure half of the blood in my body is actually made up of diet coke at this point.”

Remus chuckled which turned into a large yawn. The waitress came back and took their orders. “You guys travelling? A lot of people pass through here.”

“Yeah.” Y/n answered wishing she would just put their order in so she could have the food sooner than later.

“Where you guys going?”

“Nowhere specific.”

“Oh, just a runaway couple, how romantic!”

“We aren’t a couple.” Remus corrected quietly and the waitress made a weird noise in response, as sort of high pitched hum before saying “Well I see quite the sparks flying, let me go put your order in now so I can stop interrupting!”

“I’m really glad she saw ‘sparks flying’ over our conversation about diet coke.”

“I know it’s such a deep romantic topic,” Remus said and the both of them sarcastically laughed, it echoed quietly in the small empty diner until it turned to silence.

They sat there waiting for their food and Y/n looked around the diner. It had those usual checkered floors but the black tiles were faded, the booths had torn red leather cushions that were duct taped back together and the broken ceiling fan that was too high to reach had a thin layer of dust atop it. There were brown paper tablecloths on the tables, Y/n looked at the table behind her for some crayons, turning and reaching over the back of the booth.

“What are you, oh crayons. Am I travelling with an actual child, should I have gotten a permission slip signed?”

“Maybe.” She smiled cheekily at him and then dumped the crayons out trying to find some suitable colours. She drew a little stick person, gave it a big head with droopy eyes and a frown. “That’s you.”

“Gee thanks, I really look great there.”

“That’s not you all the time, just right now because you wouldn’t pull over at the last three motels we passed like we are on a time-sensitive trip or something.”

“I just didn’t want to sleep until I was really tired, or else I have trouble sleeping.”

“Well now you look like you are going to pass out on the table and I’m gonna have to carry you to bed.”

“You can leave me here if that happens,” Remus said, smiling widely as he rested his face in his palm closing his eyes. The waitress came back after a few minutes with two plates of a mix of breakfast type foods, those were always the best. “There you two go, need anything else?” Y/n shook her head and began eating her food quickly, wanting nothing more than to go to bed.

It didn’t take them long to finish their meals, the food at the funeral wasn’t anything remotely appetizing, nor did either of them want to eat food in the same building as their dead friends.

They were similar in their grief, not really wanting to talk about it, sort of just surviving and waiting for time to heal their wounds. It would have to happen eventually, at some point they would end up crying like babies in front of each other, reaching a breaking point and realizing that no matter how far away they ran that there would be no James and Lily to go back home too. But for now they ran to forget and it was working at the moment and that’s all that mattered to them.

They finished their food, paid their bill and left a fair tip because the waitress did a good job and made them laugh and because they were also decent people. Remus’ shoulders slouched as he walked, more so than they usually did because he was so tired. With a flick of his wand, he was changed into a pair of pyjamas, throwing his wand on the ground beside the bed and falling on top of the covers in a huff.

She took a moment to analyze him, from what she had heard most guys didn’t sleep in actual pyjamas. According to Lily they usually wore sweatpants, underwear or nothing, Lily’s knowledge of this was only really from James but it surpassed hers. Remus had on a worn out pair of plaid pyjama pants and a Gryffindor quidditch shirt he must have gotten ten sizes too big in his first year, based on the faded logo. She changed into her pyjamas and slid under the covers beside him, she listened for his breathing to see if he was asleep before he startled her by reaching up to turn off the lamp. Knowing he was awake she took the opportunity to pull the comforter from underneath him, almost making him fall off the bed. “The blanket works best if you’re underneath it.”

“I was gonna get there.” He mumbled as his face was pressed into the pillow. He shifted around on the bed trying to get as comfortable as possible without getting too close to her.

“So is this your sleeping routine? You stay up as late as your eyes allow you and then try to pass out.”

“It helps to have a stomach full of food, but generally yes,” he muttered what was probably an offhand comment to him but it made Y/n ponder for a moment. She remembered seeing his empty cupboards and the minuscule amount of change he had in a jar, she remembered him saying he used to depend on his friends, the way he emphasized that he had nothing. She wondered what it was that kept him awake at night, whether it was hunger or more recently just grief.

Remus continued explaining himself, worried that she would find his sleeping habits weird. “It’s just, if I go to bed feeling too awake then I just lay there awake for what feels like forever, then I end up getting back out of bed to do something to make me tired and then I fall asleep and sleep in way too late, it’s a stupid cycle.”

“No, I get it. I find it hard to get comfortable if I don’t have enough pillows.” She tried to relate with him as she hugged the spare pillow she had taken out of the closet to her chest.

“So you’re really telling me you sleep with stuffed animals still because that’s exactly how a child would hold a teddy bear,” Remus said as he squinted his eyes, only keeping one eye open to see her.

“If that’s your assumption then I won’t argue.” She turned around and Remus was left smiling towards her back, enjoying how frazzled she got over a simple comment.

“I’ll assume I’m right then.”

“Goodnight.” She said flatly but not angrily, like she wanted the conversation to be over so she could finally rest her eyes.


	3. Part Three - Wandless Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: this parts really sweet :’) (also remember you can read/ request drabbles on my Tumblr if you need MORE SWEETNESS) @swellwriting

**Part Three-** Wandless magic

The morning sunshine crept in through the blinds, they used to be white at some point but were a stained yellow colour now with a layer of dust adding a hint of grey. The bits of dust in the air was visible in the sunlight, seemingly floating through the cheap motel room. Y/n woke first to find her fear from last night had become reality, she found herself pressed against Remus’ side, her arms wrapped around his stomach. She questioned how her right arm even got underneath him, it was numb and there was no way she was getting it out. 

Remus lied on his back, his hair covering his eyes blocking the light from the window. His heartbeat picked up, slow sleepy breaths turned to quick deep panicked ones. Y/n would have been able to notice this even if her face wasn't resting against the side of his chest. Remus started mumbling, he was clearly on the verge of some sort of panicked nightmare. Y/n poked his side, unable to detach herself from him it was a good idea to just wake him up. He had one hand in a fist at his side and the one that was lazily resting across her back was now desperately gripping the fabric of her pyjama shirt.

She poked his side again and let her croaky morning voice mumble his name to wake him, “Remus, wake up.” His eyes shot open and she felt him tense against her. “Sorry to wake you, but we managed to get ourselves in a weird position and I was sort of stuck.” She tried to casually explain their current entanglement, avoiding mentioning the fact that he was just having a nightmare.

She heard his heartbeat go back to normal before he sat up letting her arm free.

“Beds a little small I guess,” Remus said, ignoring the fact that they clearly had enough space to themselves and giving a reason for whatever brought them so close in the night. “So what's the plan for the day, driving I presume?” Remus asked, immediately changing the topic, glad she didn't ask about his nightmare, he wasn't sure if there were even any visible signs that he was having one, but for him, it lingered in the back of his mind and brought a dreadful realization.

“I'll go get some breakfast to go and then we can keep driving.”

“Okay,” Remus mumbled and Y/n left the room walking about the motel happily in her pyjamas.

Remus grabbed his wand and changed his clothes again, made sure he had everything and then sat there in silence. Fuck, he was so  _ fucked _ , he thought to himself, how did he forget, how did he let himself be so stupid. 

Remus had just had a nightmare, the usual kind where he became a werewolf and had no wolfsbane or place of sanctuary to hide, the exact situation he would find himself in, in a little over a weeks time. How could he be so stupid so careless to let himself forget, to put her in such danger if he had forgotten any longer?

He didn't know what it was that made him forget, maybe it was the peacefulness that came from being close to Y/n, to being spontaneousness and feeling so free. Maybe he was so overcome by grief that he let it slip his mind.

He should run away, he should leave, he knew she would have enough money to make it back home safe, but the emotional damage it would do to her? He sat and contemplated what would be easiest, what would hurt her less. He could apparate to the car but was worried someone might see him since this place was filled with muggles, he looked at the dusty blinds and pulled their strings opening them as he thought out his plan. He unlocked the window and cracked it open, he looked at the motel room door to see it still closed and started to climb out. 

Remus was running away, again.

Y/n managed to open the door with a coffee, Diet Coke and two muffins filling her hands, she was met with seeing Remus halfway out the window, and her heart jumped into her throat. “Remus, what exactly are you doing?” She asked, worried that she had gone too far with letting her unconscious self cuddle up to him last night, she made him uncomfortable and now he wanted to leave.

He froze, unsure of whether to come back in and make up a lie or keep running away. He heard the pain in her voice, he had hurt her already just with the prospect of leaving her, leaving her friendless and alone in a strange town.

Remus took a deep breath and pushed himself back inside closing the window and refusing to turn to look at her.

“Remus, where you escaping out the window?” She whispered, putting the food and drinks down and sitting on the bed, he knew her face would be adorned in a frown.

He decided honesty would be best, he might as well lay it all out and explain why he has to leave her only a day into their adventure, “Yes.”

She took that as confirmation that she had done something wrong. “Look, I'm sorry if I went too far and made you feel uncomfortable but I didn't mean to, I would never cross that line with you like that, it was an accident.” Y/n said taking short quick breaths between words, it was clear she was panicked and unsure of what to do.

“What?” Remus asked finally looking at her to see she was staring at her own hands, picking at her nails anxiously. “You think I was running away because of you? You did nothing wrong? You think I would be that upset that we accidentally cuddled whilst unconscious last night?”

“Well, why else would you be running away?” Y/n pouted as she spoke, looking over at him as he came to sit down beside her.

“I guess your thoughts are just. I should probably explain myself.” Remus said and Y/n just nodded like a child that lost their words.

“I am really not good at processing my own emotions and dealing with my problems, I tend to run away out of fear. I've done it time and time again. I ran away from my friends while in Hogwarts left the school grounds and almost got expelled, I ran away from home when my mom died, we are in the process of running away together as the result of our friend's deaths. Now I'm trying to run away from you because I realize I should have never done this.” He sounded defeated and Y/n could hear it in his voice, instead of getting mad she wanted to understand him, help him.

“So you’re running away, from running away.”

“I guess you can put it that way. I just let this big problem I have slip my mind, I can't run away with you, I'm putting you in too much danger. Next week is the full moon and I have no wolfsbane or way to manage myself when I turn, and I don't know what to do.”

“You're a werewolf?” She questioned and he just nodded, looking away from her gentle eyes. “You could have told me, you don't have to run away we can handle this together. I know we didn't know each other very well when we first started this thing but you’re the only friend I really have left if we can call each other that. And you always say your friends helped you before, so let me, your  _ friend _ , help you now.”

“ I can't ask that of you, I can’t put you in danger.” Remus tried to verbally make his fears make sense to her oh so forgiving ears.

“I think I'm capable of determining that for myself. I won’t run if you promise me you won’t either. We can do this, we will be okay but only if I know I can trust you.”

“I won't try to leave again, I promise.” Remus accepted, feeling relieved at this moment.

“Good, now do you want a hug or something, I'm not very good at this kind of stuff.” Y/n asked as she wrapped Remus in a soft embrace, he wrapped his arms around her back taking comfort in the hug as a smile crept across his face.

“Was the hug last night not enough?” Remus teased and she instantly pulled away lightly smacking his arm.

“Oh shut it!” She exclaimed before getting up, grabbing her healthy breakfast that was a diet coke and a double chocolate muffin and walking out the door. Remus grabbed their bags and his own food before following her to the car.

They ate in comfortable silence, Remus complimented her on how she ordered his coffee just right without asking him, sensing he had a sweet tooth by the amount of chocolate he had in his bag.

Y/n relaxed into her seat, her feet up on the dash and all the windows open letting the summer breeze fill the car, they weren’t driving too fast and it wasn’t windy so the wind was nice for once.

“I think I'm guilty of romanticizing how muggles live.” Y/n said, sticking her hand out the window, feeling the breeze on her fingertips.

“How so? Wouldn't you say life is better with magic? Easier?”

“Maybe, I just think they have it better, they know nothing of an entire world that exists under their noses, life seems so simple for them, no magic, no apparating but instead long car rides or taking the train. They don't have to deal with blood purity, or wars regarding such.”

“They still have wars, just over  _ muggle _ things.”

“Yeah but they have to kill each other with guns and weapons of their creation, they don't have to worry about dying from The killing curse.”

“I would say guns are worse to die by.”

“But you can survive a gunshot can’t you?” Y/n asked, diving deep into this conversation.

“I have no idea, they just seem to make you suffer longer.”

“I just imagine, a life with no magic, it would be nice having to rely on yourself and other people for things, you can’t just flick your wrist and make stuff appear, you have to work for things and I'm sure it makes getting them much more satisfactory.”

“Maybe.”

Y/n was holding her wand out the window, twirling it between her fingers when the wind picked up making it fly out of her hands, she turned her head to watch it fall to the ground and into the distance.

“Did you just drop your wand?”

“Yeah,” she smiled seemingly not panicked at all, “and I don't care.”

“Oh, Merlin's beard.” Remus cursed to himself though he was smiling at her antics. 

“Screw Merlin!” She said enthusiastically. He watched as she brought her head back into the car taking Remus’ wand and dangling it out the window. “I could drop yours too!”

“Could you?”

“I'm gonna do it.”

“I'm a little busy driving so I guess I don't really have a say.”

She let her fingers go one by one until it fell out of her hands, “Let's embrace our muggle halves to the extreme, no more romanticizing muggle life, let's just live it!” She yelled as she climbed onto the window, bringing her upper half outside of the car as she sat on the window ledge, leaning her arms against the roof.

Remus admired her, her free heart and the way she was not at all concerned for the future, it would probably get them into trouble someday. He didn't want to argue with her either, he didn't blame her for resenting magic, wishing to be a muggle, to live a more normal life in her eyes.

Remus knew that they would need magic, need their wands at some point. So while Y/n was distracted, her fingers tapping the roof of the car to the music as her hair blew in the wind he stuck his hand out the window, silently using the Accio charm to get both of their wands back and tucking them under his seat before she could notice. He chuckled as he heard her singing along to the song on the radio and turned it up a bit. 

After a while, Y/n went back inside the car, her hair a mess from the wind, she tried to untangle it but it was no use.

“Don't you wish you had magic to fix that?”

“Nope.” She said happily and Remus just laughed to himself. His laughter was interrupted by a loud clanking noise coming from the engine of the car, Remus’ eyes widened and he looked at Y/n unsure of what to do, he pulled over when he realized she looked just as clueless. They got out of the car and lifted the hood, puffs of smoke came out and Remus let his face fall into his hands. “What do we do now?”

“Sort of wish we had magic to fix this, I mean I can do wandless magic but this is too much, it's too broken for me to be able to fix.” Y/n commented, mind whirling with possible solutions.

“I'm better at non-verbal than I am wandless, so if you can't fix this neither can I.” Remus shrugged, looking up and down the empty road. “What do muggles do in this situation?”

“Take it to a mechanic I guess but we can't afford that, especially a muggle one.” 

“If only someone, the smarter half of us, had grabbed our precious wands that were thrown out the car window.”

“You didn't.” Y/n smiled widely like a child, grateful that her dumb, spur of the moment actions did not have any actual consequences. Remus walked into the car and shuffled around under his seat bringing the two wands out.

Y/n grabbed her wand excitedly and without much thought she had the car fixed in seconds, she skipped back to the car and sat down, when Remus got back in he buckled his seatbelt and looked over to her, “We should get food now?”

She agreed instantly, nodding her head excitedly, “Yes to food, always yes to food.” 


	4. Part 4 - Uncommon Thieves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, this is one of my favourite parts so far, there's a lot to it so I hope you enjoy. :)))

 

 

The small family restaurant they found themselves in was a perfect place for the two to work out their plan, or that was what was on Y/n’s mind at least. While waiting for their food Y/n pulled out a map of the current town that they were in. She had gotten it at the front of the restaurant hidden under some old newspapers and coupons, it was a small town but she hoped it would have what they needed.

Remus was mindlessly doodling on the paper tablecloth but was interrupted when Y/n stretched the map out, whispering a few words making it shift into a wizarding version of the map instead.

Y/n skimmed her finger down the side, trying and hoping that she could find the potions shop easily. She took a broken crayon, circling the building on the map, she circled any buildings nearby and crossed them out when she deemed that they weren’t threats. Next, she drew the fastest route to the forest that surrounded the small town. It was thick but she found a cleared area probably used for camping during the summer months.

“What exactly are you plotting?” Remus asked looking confused.

“Don't worry about it.” She said smiling and folding up the map as their food was brought to them. She shoved a french fry in her mouth and took a sip from her drink before she noticed Remus was staring at her, “what?”

“Well, I would like to be let in on your plan you seem to be making unless you think you are getting around this town without a car or a driver before you run off into the forest by what it looks like.”

Y/n giggled and leaned in closer to him, she took a fry off his plate and ate it before she went ahead explaining herself. “We need Wolfsbane yes?” She asked and Remus nodded so she continued on, “and we have no money yes?”

“Well, not no money.” Remus trailed off quietly as she glared at him.

“Not enough for a week's worth of Wolfsbane. So there is a potions shop here, I heard people talking about it at the gas station, it's currently closed down because the person who owned it was apparently a Death Eater or a Death Eater sympathist and they disappeared after the war so it's been unattended for over two weeks.”

“If it's closed how will we get the potion or the ingredients?”

“Well, I'm thinking since it’s a small town they probably won't have Wolfsbane readily available, but they should have the ingredients and necessary supplies, so we could break in, steal what we need and then go to the forest on the outskirts of town and camp out in the car and brew the potion in the trunk. We should be able to accomplish that in time for you to start the first day's dose.”

“You’re fucking crazy, who thinks up something like that?”

“I do.” She stated proudly as she shoved four french fries in her mouth at once. Remus looked at her, completely flabbergasted at the plan she came up with. They made a good team, or maybe she was just good for Remus to have around since she actually thought about how to solve problems instead of always running away from them.

After they ate they sat for a while in the car in the mostly empty parking lot waiting for the night to creep closer.

“You all had nicknames for each other right? I never got a one.” Y/n randomly commented breaking the silence.

“Well, you weren’t a Marauder. Lily didn't get one either.”

“They called you Moony right? Makes more sense to me now.” She said with a sad smile and Remus looked just as sad, it had been a while since anyone called him that. He just nodded in response. So she continued.

“One time James called me ‘Mini Moony’,” she admitted with a smile and Remus chuckled.

“Yeah, why’s that?”

“I can’t remember, it was not too long before they- um, he hadn't seen you in over a month, I did or said something that reminded him of you and as a result, he called me  _ that _ .”

“I like it, and since James picked it, and he is the king if nicknames, you should stick with it.”

“You’re gonna call me Mini Moony?” She asked sarcastically.

“Well I like the sound of just Mini.”

“Me too... I’ll allow it.” Y/n said with a nod and they slipped into a sad silence again until Remus finally spoke up.

“I regret not visiting them more, near the end.”

“It didn’t seem like the end at the time, you had no way of knowing they were going to die.”

“I still should have been there.”

“Remus you can’t change the past, just know they loved you, they never stopped loving you or talking about you or worrying about you, yes they missed you but they never were angry about it, you shouldn’t be either.”

He nodded and looked out the window, resting his head against the window before putting the car in drive, 

“Okay Mini, we should go.”

-

Dusk settled upon the small town, very few street lights lined the streets leaving it even darker. Y/n flicked her wand effectively tinting their regular clothes black to help them blend in.

“We are real burglars now aren't we?” Remus teased as they sat in the front seat of the car. The car, though old and tattered was sort of nice for road tripping. It had the type of seats where the front seat was one long cushion with a soft fabric covering it. The back seat was the same, there was a small rip near the top of the cushion that had a small plaid blanket casually draped over it to hide it. The car was a light brown colour, rusted at the bottoms of the doors from the many years it had been in use. It was a good car for a stakeout such as this, inconspicuous to Muggles, Wizards, and Witches alike. 

Since they weren't wearing seatbelts they gravitated towards the middle of the cushion, Y/n was sat up on her knees waiting anxiously to make the call that now was a good time as any.

“We haven't seen any people in thirty minutes, I think we are safe,” Remus commented.

“I know, I'm just worried.”

“We don't have to do this,” Remus said, not having an alternative at hand though.

“It was my idea, let's just walk in, act like we own the place. If anyone catches us we say we are just gathering our uncle's things.”

“And if the guy that owns the shop comes in what do we say?” Remus asked, doing nothing to help her anxiety at this moment.

“Put your best Auror face on, I guess.” Y/n said with a shrug and hopped out of the car. She opened the back door grabbing her backpack and dumping out its contents so she would have as much room as possible.

She handed the bag to Remus to carry and took out her wand, she unlocked the shop easily. They weren't too worried about thievery in such a small town to use more advanced locking spells. Y/n let “Lumos” spill off her lips, effectively lighting the room just enough for her to see but not enough for anyone walking by to take notice. Remus stayed close behind her, his wand was drawn to protect them both if needed.

Y/n walked over to a bookshelf near the front of the dusty store. By the state of things, anyone would think the store had been unattended for years not weeks. She recognized the blueish purple cover of the advanced potions making book she had used in 6th year.

She skimmed the pages making sure it had the instructions for Wolfsbane in great detail. Remus took the book as she handed it to him, placing it inside the bag without question. She seemed like she knew what she was doing and he didn't want to intervene.

The potions shop walls were lined with a variety of pre-made potions, the collection was actually quite impressive. From love potions to healing potions, even some potions she was scared to touch. Y/n grabbed a few healing potions, just small bottles that could come in handy if their Wolfsbane doesn't quite work out. 

Behind the counter, there was a door, which probably led to the storage room. She started by grabbing the tools needed, handing Remus object after object. She worked her way to the actual ingredients and turned to Remus.

“Where’s the book?”

“In the bag somewhere.” He said not knowing he was supposed to keep it handy.

“Let's go through the ingredients, we don't want to forget anything and have to come back.” 

Remus read through the list, helping Y/n find everything and making sure they had the right quantities. The bag was too full and Y/n resorted to holding things in her arms. When they got to the doors she looked at Remus unsure of what to do.

“Uh, I'll make sure the coast is clear, so nobody sees us leaving the closed potions shop with handfuls of stolen goods.” He opened the door and slipped out, he looked up and down the street to find it just as empty. He opened the door for her to come out and she followed. Once everything was placed in the trunk Remus started driving away, following the map that Y/n had held in her hands, guiding them to safety and solitude.

“So I never asked, but why the forest?” Remus asked.

“Well no one goes camping in November so I figured it'd be empty, it saves us money from having to stay in a motel and it's safer than being around muggles and taking a chance of a cleaning lady finding us brewing potions and getting freaked out.”

“Makes sense, do we have any food? Blankets or anything?”

“We have food yes, I got a few things at the gas station, if you ever paid attention.”

“I was busy trying to charm the gas tank which I managed to do perfectly thank you very much.”

“Blanket wise, we have that one in the back seat and our sweaters but that's it. We will just have to suck it up I guess.”

Remus nodded his head, taking in the information. When the two of them arrived at the secluded spot in the forest he parked behind a few large trees granting them further coverage from any wandering muggles.

Y/n got out and moved all of the potions stuff into the trunk. “We should get some sleep while it's dark, then start brewing in the morning.” She suggested and Remus nodded again, unsure of how they were going to sleep in the small car.

“I'll take the front seat I guess?” Remus suggested and Y/n nodded awkwardly climbing over the back seat and trying to lie down. It was worse than she thought, the car was colder when it wasn't on and since the forest was located near a lake, the air surrounding them was chilly too. Y/n tried her best to get comfortable but found it difficult since she was so cold. She had the small blanket draped over her but it did little to nothing for warmth. 

After about twenty minutes of lying there hoping to fall asleep, which felt like hours to her, she leaned over the front seat looking down to see Remus lying there with his longs legs scrunched up and his eyes wide open. “Can't sleep either?” 

“It’s a bit of a tight fit, hard to get comfortable,” Remus replied shifting in his seat a little.

“Yeah, it’s cold too.” She frowned resting her face in her palms as she looked down at him. Remus didn't ask for permission before climbing over the back of the seat and almost falling into Y/n’s lap. He assumed this was what she was asking for, Remus pulled down the passenger side of the front seat which was able to go down flat, probably to be used for transporting large things in the small car. 

He lied down squishing Y/n against the back of the cushion and lifting his arm so she could lay on his chest. He pulled the thin blanket over them which wasn't really needed anymore since their close proximity shared their body heat keeping them warm. She noticed how warm Remus really was. She assumed it must be the wolf blood in him, that he just ran at a hotter temperature. 

Remus felt warmer than usual because of the cuddling that was now happening whilst both of them were awake, unlike last time. He liked being this close to her, it made him feel warm in his chest and that radiated through his whole body. They stretched their legs, clumsily overlapping each other onto the folded down front seat, this was much more comfortable for them both.

Y/n felt the rise and fall of his chest as his breaths got slower and deeper, she closed her eyes and it didn't take long for them to fall asleep.

-

The translucent car windows did nothing to block the sunshine that made its way past the leafless trees. Y/n opened her eyes halfway and then closed them, burying her face into Remus’ chest. Remus was awake and had been for a few minutes. Not wanting to move and wake her up, he just lied there patiently, enjoying the way her arm was wrapped around him. He laughed when she groaned from how bright the sun was and put his hand up blocking it from her eyes.

She took a few minutes to wake fully, groggy from the shorter amount of sleep than she was used to. When she was awake she sat up, shifting so they could comfortably sit beside each other in the back seat, still very close together. Y/n rummaged through her bag that was on the floor and pulled out some snacks suitable for breakfast, “Sorry, no coffee.”

“I'm sure I’ll live.” Remus joked and her heart skipped a beat after hearing his morning voice, she would never get enough of that. They ate in silence and then got right to work on the potion, using the daylight while they could.

It was an easy routine, Y/n was rather good at potions so Remus just watched and read her instructions from time to time.

“Have you ever thought of becoming a Potions professor?” Remus asked once Y/n was doing something simple that didn't require her full attention.

“Yeah, but I've heard Severus and Dumbledore have too many conversations about it to even try to apply.”

“Snivellus wants to be the Potions professor? Isn't he all about Defence Against the Dark Arts?” Remus asked, clearly never having had listened to a conversation between Dumbledore and Snape during the Order meetings.

“From the conversations I've heard, Severus wants that spot when it opens up, but Dumbledore is keen on putting him on Potions instead if Slughorn ever retires. Aren't you good at the Defence?” She asked, lazily shortening the class name.

“Figuratively speaking, yes. But nobody would ever allow a werewolf to teach at Hogwarts.” Remus said quietly, a hint of sadness in his voice.

“What they don't know won't hurt them. Besides I think we should tell Snivellus, as you call him, to fuck off because he should never be in charge of children, and take those positions for ourselves. I could even brew you wolfsbane each month, it’d be perfect.”

“Only if.”

“Not if, but when!” She exclaimed excitedly and Remus let his mind wander, imagining both having his dream job and having her there with him. It would be nice to be at Hogwarts again and be able to still have someone he knows there. He was also certain that going back to Hogwarts is not something he wants to do anytime soon. Going back there without his friends would hurt too much, he tried not to think about that part.

It was almost dusk and Y/n had been working non-stop on the potion since Remus needed to drink the first dose the next day. Remus made sure to feed her snacks as she worked and offered any help he could.

“Finished!” She exclaimed throwing her hands into the air, “pass me those big glass bottles and that marker.” She asked and Remus obliged. Y/n poured the potions into the glasses and then marked the amount he would need to drink each day, this was easier than having separate glass bottles everywhere especially since she made enough for the next month as well.

“You are amazing,” Remus said holding up the bottles and admiring the potions inside.

“Really? Because yesterday you said I was fucking crazy!” Y/n joked, standing up and dusting off her knees, taking her wand out to clean the mess. Remus closed the trunk and put the potions in the back seat on the floor, wrapping an extra sweater around them for safety.

“So should we get some sleep? Drive some more?” Remus asked, unsure of how tired she was.

“I don't know but I think we should stay here, I sort of like it here. I wouldn't mind staying for a while. Besides I don't know when we will find another place like this.”

“No, I don't mind at all,” Remus answered almost too quickly, excited by the thought of getting to hold her and cuddle as they slept. He wasn't sure why, he went from barely knowing her, merely an acquaintance to considering her a friend, his only friend. Now he had thoughts of a future with her, thoughts of more and that scared him a little.

Maybe it was because the full moon was coming close, maybe it was because she was so kind and accepting of every part of him. He wondered for a moment what would happen when they were finished here, when this road trip ended where would they go and what would they do?

That thought alone and the fact that tomorrow marked a week until the full moon was very stressful for him, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. Y/n’s eyes widened but she didn't comment knowing he was probably and rightfully stressed out.

“We could go on a walk?” She suggested and Remus nodded as he struggled to light the cigarette. She started walking and he followed. She found a path that was smoother than the rest of the forest, though everything was covered in coloured dead leaves, and followed it. She picked wildflowers as they talked and Remus tried not to watch her so lovingly. The way she didn't pick the prettiest flower of a bunch but rather the most damaged one, the way she knelt on her knees getting them covered in the dirt without care.

Remus was so busy watching Y/n that he didn't notice what she had seen to make her stop in her tracks, he looked away from her seeing the small lake. She looked like a small child, transfixed on a toy in a store trying to figure out a way to get their hands on it.

“It’s too cold to go swimming, as much as I think we could both use it.” He suggested as if he had read her thoughts.

She smiled mischievously and took her wand out that was tucked into the side of her boot holding it up as she walked closer to the lake.

“If you make the water warmer you could kill any wildlife living in there,” he continued but she smiled like she was one step ahead of him. She moved her wand and the water moved in turn, half of the pond swishing and the few visible fish swam to the opposite side of the pond. 

The small pond was divided by a sheer glittery line. Y/n proceeded to mumble words under her breath and Remus watched as steam started to rise from only one half of the pond.

“Very efficient problem-solving skills you have there.” Remus complimented, suddenly getting very flustered by the way she turned and smirked at him. Before he could ask her what she was doing next she flicked her wand, transfiguring their clothes into bathing suits. 

He felt exposed and rightfully so, he was covered in scars he didn’t want her to see. A deep red blush travelled up his neck and to his cheeks. He wanted to cover himself but before he could even do anything she threw her wand onto the ground and grabbed his hands pulling him into the water with a splash.

Pulling someone into water or pushing them never goes well, Remus fell into the water almost landing on Y/n, though she didn't seem too worried about it based on how loudly she was laughing. The lake was small, and the space they had was even smaller, Remus couldn't help the way his hands drifted to her waist holding her close to him as she continuously giggled in his ear. He hadn’t noticed their close proximity and the way he was holding her until she held him back, placing her hands on his shoulder. She slid her hands from his shoulders to the back of his neck, moving her arms and pulling him closer. 

She looked as though she was going to kiss him, the way she eyed his lips and moved closer, and closer, and closer.

Remus panicked and pulled them both underwater. Abruptly, he came back up to the surface to find Y/n laughing as if nothing had happened. He wished he could have just stayed underwater and drowned instead of having to process what just happened. She almost kissed him, she was so close to kissing him that he felt her small breaths and smelled the mint chocolate she had just eaten. He should have kissed her back or at least not pulled away but he did. He was scared and that’s what he did when he was scared, he ran away.

Y/n didn’t seem fazed by his shutdown of her advance, she had no right to be mad at him, she was hurt yes, but maybe he hadn't felt the pull that she did. She couldn't blame him for that. She forced a laugh out when she came to the surface and tried to hide the pain in it, she pretended like nothing ever happened so it wouldn't ruin their growing friendship and make things awkward.

When they got back to the car, fully dressed in warm dry clothes, it was darker than when they left. Remus lit another cigarette and leaned against the car.

“So do you only smoke when you’re stressed out, like when the full moon is coming?”

“I'm always stressed, but I smoke when I'm substantially more stressed than usual,” he answered as he blew out a puff of smoke away from where Y/n was standing.

“Understandably so.” Y/n replied, awkwardly fidgeting with her fingers. She assumed he was stressed over the full moon, and that was the reason he had a cigarette half an hour ago, but now? Now he is stressed because this girl, that he is quickly and wholeheartedly falling for, just tried to kiss him and his reaction was to try to drown them both instead.

Remus inhaled the last bit of his cigarette and butted it out against his car making the ashes fall to the ground, he took the butt of the cigarette and threw it into the nearby trash can, she watched him and raised a brow so he felt obligated to explain, “They don't decompose, if I threw it on the ground animals would eat it and it would make them sick.”

“I'm not judging you for caring, I've just never seen anyone do that before.” Her voice trailed off, unsure of how to approach what was inevitably next, sleeping. Y/n opened the car door and crawled into the front seat, Remus got into the back and laid there for a minute before speaking. “Are you not going to come back here?”

“I don’t want to intrude on your space.” She answered quietly as she sat up peering over the seat to look at him. 

He opened his arms and placed a dorky smile on his face, “Please?” With that she crawled over the seat, landing in his open arms and getting herself comfortable. 

As she lied there she couldn't help but think, maybe he did like her, maybe he felt whatever was growing between them but wanted to take things slow, maybe she shouldn't have tried to kiss him only a few days into their adventure. She was content with those thoughts as she fell asleep. 

Remus, on the other hand, was a ball of anxiety over the small interaction. His mind was reeling, he made her think that he didn't want this, he rejected her kiss and she took that as him rejecting her. And oh boy did he think he had fucked up his already slim chances.


	5. Part 5 - Full Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This parts really dramatic and emotional and angsty!!! ENJOY

 

A week had passed. Remus had drunk the Wolfsbane each day and tonight when the full moon came out they would find out if it worked or not.

“So how should we do this?” Y/n asked as they laid on the hood of the car, enjoying a bit of the rare mid-November sun.

“Well, there are a few things to think about. The Wolfsbane tastes like it usually does, horrid, and I'm not trying to question your potion making skills but if it doesn't work we have to be prepared. I can't be sleeping in the car when I turn, I’ll get out too easy the windows are too breakable. We also need to put you somewhere safe, away from me just in case.”

“What if you need me?” She asked as she turned on her side moving to lean on her elbow and propping her head up with her palm. He looked at her, the way she didn't look at him as a beast, she wasn't scared, just worried.

“Your safety is more important than my needs.” He said, insistent. He brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and noted the way the sun was shining on her hair in an angelic sort of way. 

It’s probably not good to idolize people, especially real people that you know. But Remus couldn't help but think of Y/n as an angel, a forgiving, caring and kind angel that he was lucky enough to have in his life. Even if it was a life filled with only friendship and fleeting touches. Even if he had to spend his whole life going no further than brushing her hair out of her face, his finger tracing the shape of her cheekbone as he did, at least he would be with her.

“Not true but I won’t argue with you. Since we have stayed here all week I think it will be okay if we get two cheap rooms in the basement of a wizards pub. We can be in separate rooms, I can use advanced locking spells and silencing spells to keep us hidden.” She explained calmly.

Remus had been worried all week, wondering how they would tackle the upcoming full moon, he voiced this concern to her the other day as they walked into town to get lunch but she said she wasn't worried, her mind was on food. Y/n was always thinking in the moment, something Remus continuously admired about her. Maybe that's what developed her problem-solving skills to what they are now, maybe she works best under pressure.

Y/n slid off the hood of the car after squinting into the sun trying to determine what time of day it was. She grabbed the car keys and started the car, startling Remus who was still sat on the hood, he turned around, sliding onto his knees and looking at her through the windshield.

“Planning to run me over instead of having to deal with the Full Moon?” He yelled so she would hear him.

“No, but I was thinking that I could drive us there.” She smiled mischievously up at him, she honked the horn but he saw it coming so he didn't flinch, just playfully glared at her. She stared up at him as sweetly as she could until he admitted defeat and made his way into the passenger seat.

“Okay, you know how the car works yes?” He asked patiently, sitting on the bench type car seat directly beside her.

“Yes, I've been taking notes.”

“Then go ahead, follow the gravel road we took to get in here and you should be good.”

She was slow, scared of what it felt like to be in control of such a large object. When she reached the end of the gravel path she put her turn signal on and checked to see if the coast was clear. Remus just nodded at her approvingly.

She didn't slow down much before the turn though, and the muddy gravel beneath the wheels skidded just a bit scaring her enough to make her slam on the breaks.

Remus put his hand out to stop himself from hitting the dash of the car. Y/n took her hands off the wheel and smiled sheepishly at Remus, “That was fun, maybe you should drive the rest of the way.”

“Okay put the car in park,” he chuckled as she did so, then she climbed over him back to the passenger side of the car. It was good that no one else was on the road at this time, though it seemed pretty untraveled.

“Passenger side is much comfier anyways.”

“Sure, you just tell yourself that.” Remus teased and she playfully pushed him by his shoulder.

-

They found a small wizard pub that had a sign saying there were overnight rooms available. After bartering with the guy they managed to get two of the three rooms in the basement for a fair price. It was hard for them to convince the man why they needed two rooms. The man was so certain that they were a couple and they had to adamantly explain that no, they were not.

The two were standing in the hallway outside the two rooms, Remus was about to go into his room and Y/n would cast the two spells once he did. They found it hard to say goodbye. The concept of spending the night apart, given it was only a wall between them, was unnerving. The two had grown so dependant on each other, the grief was easier when they weren't alone, it was better together. They had slept in each other's arms for over a week and Y/n didn't ever want to sleep through a night in any other way.

“I should go now,” Remus suggested as he backed into the doorway.

“You have everything? Are you sure you are good?” Y/n asked for probably the third time in twenty minutes.

“I'm sure Mini, I'll be fine. Goodnight.” He smiled but his eyes were sad, scared.

“Goodnight,” she said as she started to close the door, wand in hand. She was overcome with worry, every bad scenario playing through her head. Her wrist twitched as it held the doorknob and she swiftly opened it again banging it on the wall as she ran into the room encasing him in a hug. This was their second hug since he told her he was a werewolf. 

“You’ll be okay.” She whispered in his ear, reassuring them both. She quickly placed a light kiss on his cheek, her soft lips meeting the scar that ran from one side of his face to the other.

She turned and left as swiftly as she entered, closing the door and pressing her forehead against it. She took out her wand, pressed it against the doorknob and said the words clearly. 

The next thing she did was not what she had promised to do.

Y/n was supposed to cast a silencing spell on Remus’ room, to ensure no one in the pub would hear him, and to ensure that she wouldn’t either. 

But she was so concerned, she wanted to make sure that if she was locking him in the room she could hear him cry out if he needed her. So she lifted her wand, she cast the silencing spell on the entire basement instead. The third room looked unoccupied anyways. Then she walked into her room, she took the blanket off the bed and walked across the room sitting on the floor, leaning against the shared wall between them and waited.

-

An hour had passed, Y/n had fallen asleep but was awoken when her head slipped off her palm and met the wall with a thud. She groaned, her hand meeting the growing bump on her head. She looked around the room, unsure of how she got there for a moment. 

The room was small, the wallpaper atrocious, and the carpet so dingy she regretted sitting on it. The blanket she used was exceptionally itchy and not to mention the worst shade of green she had ever seen making her shrug it off and stand up. She placed her palms against the wall and tried to listen for Remus since the full moon would have turned him by now.

Without Wolfsbane he would be a full werewolf, but with the right dosage of properly brewed Wolfsbane he would be a sleeping werewolf probably curled up on the floor. Y/n wasn't sure if he would be either of those or some degree of an in-between state.

Since it was silent she hoped the Wolfsbane had worked, until she heard a large bang followed by a pitchy groan. Her heart stopped beating for a moment as she collected herself. Did she really just hear that?

On the other side of the wall Remus had changed into a werewolf, for the first hour or so he slept but the strength of the potion had worn off, probably due to dated ingredients. He was still rather calm though, but the anger and the beast inside him stirred to come out. His eyes flashed open and his wolf self wrapped his arms around himself trying to suppress the urges to attack something, anything. Remus stood up, picked up a chair and threw it across the room, hitting the wall behind him, this was the noise Y/n had heard.

He fell to the floor again scratching at his own skin, blood filled his nails and he cried out in pain from his own unstoppable actions.

Y/n heard his cries, hot tears ran down her face as she fell to the floor beside the wall again. She cried and cried, feeling as though she had failed him, as though this was her fault. She cried until she surely thought she would run out of tears but there were plenty of tears for Remus. 

This was the moment that she realized that she was in love with him. 

She falls in love too easily, she falls in love with the strangers she meets every day, she falls in love with herself and she fell in love with Remus the first time she met him. 

But this was different, it was as though she had now moved past the first level of love, this was real love. The kind where she almost felt his pain, she was desperate to help him and felt helpless about it, the overwhelming need to stop Remus from hurting himself. She wished the pain on herself instead, it was a self-sacrificing type of love, the kind where she’d die for him easily and so soon into their friendship or whatever it was between them. 

She felt settling in her bones as she accepted her love for him, she felt her heartache. This love could be platonic, she would be okay with that, but she couldn’t push away the feeling of wanting, needing more with him.

When her eyes grew dry the tears came from her heart and up her throat, dry and pained yells for the person she had grown to love but couldn't help.

After a while, Remus scratched at the carpet instead, he scratched until he met concrete and then scratched and scratched until he passed out hours later.

Y/n hadn’t fallen asleep, she sat there dry heaving at the thought of her own failure. She ran to the bathroom, and threw up in the sink, she threw up until her stomach was as empty as she felt. This was causing her actual pain, it was literally making her sick. 

All she wanted was go curl up beside Remus and get some sleep, she was so exhausted that lifting her body off the bathroom counter was more work than she anticipated. Her limbs were heavy and her feet felt as though they were tied to cinder blocks, she couldn't complain though because based off of Remus’ pained cries he was far worse. 

Slowly she made her way to the small window that was ground level, tiptoeing to peer out of it and trying to see the sky, the moon was fading, and the sun was so dimly visible in the distance. She stood there, fingers clutching the window sill, toes aching from standing on them for so long. She waited until the exact moment the sun was visible and ran quickly to Remus’ room. She struggled to undo her own locking charm, her words mumbled between sobs. 

When she finally got into the room Remus was on the floor, bloodied and bruised and unconscious. She grabbed her wand and struggled to use magic to lift him onto the bed, her mind a hazy fog from the emotional stress. She picked him up with her hands bringing him to the bed and then falling in beside him, she passed out almost instantly.

With the comfortable bed and the non-existent window in the room they could have slept in all day long, they needed it surely.

Sadly their deep sleep was interrupted by a banging fist on the door, they both awoke with dried tears on their cheeks.

Someone was yelling on the other side but it was muffled, Remus tried to get up but winced from the pain so Y/n got up instead and opened the door a crack effectively hiding Remus on the bed from the prying eyes of the angry-sounding stranger.

“What the fuck was going on in here all night, screaming and crying! Kept me up all hours of the night!”

“I'm deeply sorry Sir,” Y/n tried to apologize, a frown deep on her face and bags under her eyes.

“Don't Sir me!” He yelled and pushed the door, opening it wide and knocking Y/n to the floor, not knocking her unconscious but effectively knocking the wind out of her.

Remus sat up in the bed as the man made his way across the room.

“What the fuck is this? What is going on here you're all bloody, is this some fucked up torture shit!” He continued to yell which helped in no way with their pounding headaches.

“No.” Remus tried to explain but the guy quickly grabbed Remus’ arm making him cry out in pain. He looked at the markings, the potion bottle and tied things together rather quickly, he must have experience with this sort of stuff.

“You’re a fucking Werewolf aren't you!” He yelled and squeezed Remus’ bloody arm before letting go and pushing it away roughly. “You're keeping a fucking Werewolf in the same building as other wizards are you fucking mad!” He turned to Y/n who was still on the floor, she backed up against the wall as he got closer.

“It’s not her fault, we will be leaving shortly.” Remus tried to sound stern, tried to assert himself but failed, he sounded like a weak and injured puppy.

“Both of you are at fault, and both of you will be reported to the Ministry for such, I bet you are an unregistered Werewolf, they don't take kindly to that.” The man threatened and pointed his wand at Remus' throat.

Y/n was scared, she felt powerless. Unsure of what to do she used Accio to summon her wand but it was stuck in her room where she left it, she would have to resort to wandless magic, luckily that was her strong suit. Silently she got up and yelled the words clearly and imagined the spells as powerful as she could in her mind, she hexed him making him fall onto the floor, he screamed in pain. She had used a rather nasty one, the kind that would get you kicked out of Hogwarts.

“You just attacked another wizard! I know people in the Ministry, they can have you sent to prison for such crimes! I swear it!” He yelled as he lied on the floor looking small and weak in her protective rage filled eyes.

“Petrificus Totalus!” She yelled and the man's body became bound tightly freezing him in place, she picked up his wand and threw it across the room, the man went to yell but before he could she yelled again, “Silencio!”

The amount of wandless magic she was able to do was becoming limited. She ran around the room as Remus sat on the bed looking dumbfounded, she gathered their things, grabbed her wand from her room and stood in front of Remus. 

“What do we do now?” Remus asked.

“We need to leave.”

“I agree,” he mumbled staring at the man on the floor.

“I had to do that.” She felt bad for attacking the man but he was going to attack them, attack Remus.

“I know, I'm not upset with you, I'm thankful.”

She smiled at his compliment and lifted her wand, making it less stressful on her mind to cast the next few spells. “Scourgify,” she said and twirled her wand effectively cleaning the whole basement of any trace of them. Then she grabbed Remus' hand helping him stand up and pointed her wand at the man, “He can't remember this at all, or he will report this to the Ministry, they will find us.” She explained and Remus just nodded.

“Obliviate.” She said and didn't wait another second before apparating into the car. The two of them fell into the back seat and Remus groaned from his tired and bloody limbs hitting the seat. “We have to get out of here, no one else can see us.”

“Well, what happens when someone finds that man tied up in the basement? Won't the bartender remember us?”

“The binds I used on him are charmed to disappear when I cast obliviate, he is just sitting on the floor of a room that's not his completely confused, but we still need to get out of here, back to the forest at least.”

“Okay, but it’s not safe for me to drive us there, and we can't leave the car here,” Remus explained looking rather upset because he felt so helpless.

“I'll drive, I can drive I'll just go slow.” She said but knew she would have to drive fast to get away from this place. She climbed into the front seat and put the keys in the car pulling out of the thankfully simple parking spot and going down the road.

“Slow down when you turn,” Remus commented and she smiled.

“Oh hush up, you backseat driver.”

Y/n chewed on her lip until it bled, though she hadn't noticed the coppery taste on her tongue, she was focused on the road. Remus helped as best as he could but he was close to passing out again from the pain. Y/n finally pulled into the forest, she forgot to slow down and skidded against the gravel again making her curse under her breath as she tried to control the car, she drove ever so slowly down the path until she found that familiar hidden space.

She practically jumped over the front seat, pulling the part down so he could lie down comfortably, then she ran to the trunk grabbing the few healing potions she managed to steal and grabbing her wand trying to remember the healing spells she learned at Hogwarts a few years ago.

After about an hour of doting over him she finally settled down, she pushed everything to the side and sat down on the back seat careful not to touch his injuries.

“You look awful,” he commented with a frown, he had been staring at her as she worked, the bags under her eyes, the redness in them, the bloody lip she had given herself.

“You don't look so good yourself.” She joked and forced a smile on her face.

“He heard me Y/n, if you cast the silencing spell how did he hear me, how did you end up in my bed with me.”

She frowned and looked at her hands which were covered in his drying blood, “I'm sorry.” She muttered before letting the tears trickle down her face in defeat.

He instantly regretted it, he never wanted to have to see her cry, break down in front of him.

“All of this.” She shrugged and gestured dramatically with her hands around the space, “It’s all my fault, I messed up the Wolfsbane, I messed up the silencing spell and didn't listen to you and this all happened because of me.”

“Hey, calm down. If it wasn’t for me this wouldn't have been your problem at all. Please don't blame yourself, what matters is that we are okay.”

“You’re not! I heard you all night long, crying in pain and hurting yourself and I just sat there and did nothing, I cried and cried and made myself sick over it.”

Remus frowned as he reached up and wiped the tears from her cheeks, he pulled her down to fall beside him in the small seat. “Shh.” He cooed and repeated it until her laboured breaths became softer, calmer. He ran his fingers over a bit of exposed skin, affectionate gentle touches so she would understand that he wasn’t mad at her.

“The Wolfsbane didn't work, the ingredients were probably expired and that's not your fault, I wouldn't have had any of it if I were still on my own. You tried to help me Y/n and regardless of whether or not it worked the fact that you tried and cared already means so much to me. Knowing I made you cry, twice now, and that it made you sick? That breaks my heart even more.” He admitted and she turned her face hiding it under his arm, her eyelashes tickling his shirtless chest.

“We need a better way of handling this.” She whispered, her voice heavy and tired. The sunshine was warm and bright but if she hid her face just right it didn't bother her.

“For now we just heal and focus on sleeping,” Remus suggested, sounding so much like Y/n at that moment. She nodded against his skin and then fell asleep, Remus was close behind her since she did a pretty good job patching him up and healing him.

-

Travelling with Remus was a lot of late night drives, asking him to drive as slow as possible, no rush or anywhere to be quickly and taking time just enjoying the slight breeze the changing scenery and never being in one place for long. 

It was going to grocery stores when they were at their emptiest and spending hours roaming the aisles, it was gas stations that were open 24/7, but not going until 3 am and mixing all the slushie flavours together. 

It was always parking and watching the sunset. It was waking up by the sunshine. It was taking pictures of nothing. It reminded Y/n of what youth was like with her muggle friends during the summer when she had no money but all the time in the world and had to fill it with such boring things. 

Making jokes and fun out of nothing. It was holding his hand and squeezing his fingers between hers. It was being entangled in the backseat of the car reading comic books out of order. It was thrift stores and charity shops because they could never afford anything else. It was Y/n sitting on the hood of the car and Remus sitting on the trunk throwing gummy bears into each other's mouths. 

Its was climbing trees and purposely stepping in muddy puddles. It was making crowns out of leaves and flowers. It was this innocent exploring love that the two of them had never experienced before. 

But it was also pain, sadness and having both their hearts as open wounds. They missed their friends, Y/n constantly ached to be with Harry. Not that Remus wasn't enough but she couldn't stand how happy she felt sometimes like she shouldn't be allowed to experience these things without them. 

The realization that she was only living this way because they were gone hit hard, her and Remus might have never gotten closer if it hadn't been forced by their leaving of their old life. 

Whatever happened these memories would last forever for both of them. Memories of Y/n sitting in his lap and applying the boldest of eyeshadow looks. Collecting every cassette they could get their hands on and jamming to ABBA and singing at the top of her lungs. Sneaking into the drive-in and sitting by a tree and then spending the rest of the night blabbering on about Star Wars. 

It was perfect but limited and soon enough it would have to come to an end because no one can run away forever.


	6. Part 6 - Sunset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their Roadtrip takes a turn, or two. A new destination is set and a new character is mentioned!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part Six- Sunset (contains smut*)
> 
> A/N: This chapter contains smut but it is clearly marked where it starts and stops, please only read that part if you are 18+

 

Remus woke up with Y/n in his arms again, no further moves had been made since he had dodged her attempt at kissing him last week. He never stopped thinking about it, how close she was, her slightly puckered lips and the mint chocolate on her breath. It haunted his dreams and he was worried he would talk in his sleep and make his adoration of her obvious.

She was none the wiser, since she tried to kiss him and failed the only thing she had realized was that she was in love with him, she made no new discoveries about his feelings.

He reached into the bag beside him and pulled out a chocolate bar, the crinkling of the wrapper interrupted Y/n’s sleep. She blinked, rubbed her tired face on Remus still bare skin, weird how she was so cold in a giant warm sweater but he stayed warm regardless of what he wore.

She eyed his chest and stomach taking mental note of where all his now fading injuries were, she sat up slightly crossing her arms and laying them on his chest resting her chin on her hands.

“Morning, chocolate?” He asked, mouth full of the sweet snack he spoke off.

“Of course,” she smiled, her tired eyes closing from the action. She made no move to grab a piece, just opened her mouth expectantly and Remus took the order, breaking the last piece in half and then placing one in her mouth and the rest in his own.

She hadn’t noticed that it was the last piece though, she quickly finished eating it and opened her mouth again but Remus shrugged his shoulders a bit continuing to eat the last piece.

Y/n frowned and tapped her fingers impatiently on the skin below his collar bone, was she this close before? “You ate the whole thing!”

“Sorry Mini.” He must be feeling better, he called her by her nickname and he wasn't one to use it often. Her heart fluttered at the sound.

“That was the last of our snacks too, wasn’t it?” She questioned and he nodded, he noticed that one of her knees was pinned between his own, he wasn't sure when that happened but she was now basically on top of him. Her hands were against his chest and she could feel his heartbeat quicken, she noted the way his cheeks turned rosy pink as he looked from their intertwined legs and back up to her eyes, her face was closer than before.

She decided to toy with him further, maybe she should try to kiss him again and if he pulls away this time she will know for sure that he doesn't feel the same for her.

“Guess I'll just have to eat you then,” she joked, her sweet and quiet voice making it worse for him. 

Remus let out a squeak of a response, “Guess so.”

Their noses bumped before their lips met, she turned her head slightly and placed her soft lips on his, one solid slow kiss. Remus met her for it this time instead of pulling away. Her breath and lips tasted like chocolate again, just like last time. He didn't initiate anything further, he laid there, hands idle and still. She pulled away from the kiss and he admired the way her cheeks rounded from how wide her smile was.

“Sorry.” She said averting his eyes but he was quick to dismiss her bashfulness.

“No, don't be sorry, I just, don't be sorry.” He tried to communicate his feelings to her but had never done such a thing before. He wanted to say that he liked the kiss, he would kiss her as many times as she’d let him. He wanted to say that he hadn't stopped thinking about kissing her since the last time he so foolishly pulled away. He wanted her to know that he wanted more with her, a life and a future and all the stupid stuff people who are in love do together, he wanted it all. 

So many words bounced around his skull, anyway he could formulate even a half-coherent sentence would work. If he could just mutter the simple question to her, asking her to be his girlfriend, or however it is that people ask that sort of thing. Sadly the only words that came out of his mouth were a pathetic attempt of a question and a statement, “Breakfast?”

She watched him silently for a few minutes before speaking the question and when he asked it she nodded in response. She could still feel his racing heartbeat against her palm and see the fear and anxiety in his eyes that couldn't focus on anything.

Remus had always blocked off his emotions, he wasn't concerned with dating at Hogwarts, he wasn't concerned with it afterwards either. He wasn't purposefully pushing that part of a potential love life away, he just wasn't pursuing it. 

He wouldn't have ever gone looking for someone to love either, they just so happened to get in the passenger side of his stupid muggle car and agree to run away with him. 

Y/n knew bits of this without Remus telling her. Lily had told Y/n probably too many details about Remus’ sad and non-existent love life, out of worry. Lily did that a lot, when she was worried about something she would talk about it forever making herself worry more and more. It took a bit of reasoning, which Y/n and James had both perfected, to get her to calm down.

Y/n gazed emptily at the forest out the window, only brought back to reality by Remus carefully sitting up holding her waist to keep her in her spot.

“I better start driving then?” He asked with a sleepy smile, “Unless you wanted to?”

“I’ll take back that kiss!” She challenged, squinting her eyes at him, her face extremely close to his since she was still sat on his lap.

Remus closed the space even further, looking from her lips to her eyes before kissing her briefly again. Then he pulled away and climbed into the front seat with a proud smile on his blushing face for being so confident in that moment.

Y/n sat in the middle seat, still stretching a seat belt over her shoulder but she rested her tired body against Remus’ as he drove to get some breakfast.

-

Fast food wrappers from a quick and cheap breakfast were stuffed into a bag, the two were leaving the parking lot as Y/n was half hanging out the window trying to throw the garbage into the bin. She tossed it with acute precision landing neatly in the bin without knocking anything else out.

She cheered quietly for herself and Remus laughed, she got a bit too excited and hit her head as she quickly came back into the car.

“Ow!” She yelped and brought her hands to the same bump that was there from the night of the full moon when her head hit the wall.

“Of course you managed to hurt yourself.” Remus continued to laugh at her knowing she wasn't actually hurt.

“I hit my head the other night too, I'm thinking this bump will never go away at this rate!”

“The other night?” He questioned, eyes on the road.

“Yeah, when we were in the separate rooms. After I went to my room alone I was sitting against the wall to make sure you were okay and I fell asleep and got woken up when my head fell out of my hand and hit the wall.”

“I’d feel bad if I hadn't told you to not do that,” Remus said, sparing a glance at her as she ran her fingers over the bump on her head. She noticed he was looking so she just stuck her tongue out at him in response.

They drove down a long road for what felt like forever, unsure of exactly where they were off to next. They were very short on money and they were both aware of it as they scraped together some change for their breakfast.

After an hour of silence and shitty radio songs, Y/n finally spoke up. “I've been thinking.”

“Either wonderful or terrible things can be a result of that.” Remus teased.

“We are almost completely out of money and we have no way of making any more. We have a few options, we could rob a bank, I'm thinking something a little less secure than Gringotts,”

“A little?” Remus interrupted with a laugh.

“Or I have this friend, I know he survived the war because he sent me an owl when he heard about James. Anyways he said he was doing really well, he has some sort of business that he’s running and that if I was ever nearby to pay him a visit and check out his business.”

“So you wanna go visit him?” Remus asked, curious as to who this friend was and if he would know him from Hogwarts.

“Yeah, I thought we could since we really have no other destination in mind! Do you remember Bertram Aubrey? He was in Hogwarts with us?”

Remus went silent for a moment, the name sounded familiar to him but he couldn't remember why. Bertram Aubrey? Suddenly Remus remembered exactly who that was.

“James and Sirius hexed him and made his head huge, they got double detention for that one.”

Y/n had an exasperated look on her face, out of all the people they could have hexed it had to be Bertram? “Do you think he will remember that?”

“Oh, I'm sure of it! Hopefully, he’s forgiven them and that extends to me, he wasn't exactly friendly to any of us after that.”

“Rightfully so, I’d be pissed.”

“I think it was an accident honestly but I can't remember.”

The car went silent until Y/n suddenly broke into a fit of laughter, “Sorry, I just remembered seeing him like that, I forgot that happened, he couldn't fit the hood from his robes over his head.” She bent over in a fit, reminiscing on the funny memory.

“Glad it has made you laugh all these years later.” Remus smiled trying to hold back the laughter himself.

“Oh, I laughed back then too, in front of Bertram. He was so mad,” she had to pause to breath between laughs, “I wish James was here so we could laugh about it together.”

She stopped laughing slowly, the realization of what she had just said hit her like a ton of bricks. Remus noticed this, he too felt bad when he would think about his friends in past tense like he was accepting that they were gone and he shouldn't be. Like he should still be a mourning mess at the sounds of his friend's names.

“It’s okay to talk about him, to remember him and wish he was here. I know it feels like the only right way to mourn him is to be sad and miss him and all of them all the time but it’s okay to remember him in happier ways, in stupid memories and stories from our past because that's all we have left.” Remus talked as seriously as he could as he focused on the road in front of him. Y/n didn't reply she just intertwined her fingers with the hand that he wasn't using to drive and let her head fall on his shoulder.

They continued to drive like this in silence, only speaking so Y/n could direct Remus where to go every now and then, eventually Remus reached a crossroad, he went to ask her if he was supposed to go left or right when he noticed she had fallen asleep. He didn't want to wake her up so he decided to pull into a small empty parking lot beside a large field that led to a forest with walking trails.

It was late afternoon, night time was inching closer and closer. The area they were in seemed pretty uninhabited, perhaps a busier place in warmer months.

Y/n’s eyes blinked as she woke up from her nap, she was unsure how long she had been asleep but she looked ahead seeing the green forest and determined they weren’t driving anymore. “Sorry, I fell asleep.”

“That's okay, driving is boring sometimes.”

“You're just really comfy.” She said as a smile broke across her face and she stretched her arm across his stomach letting her hand fall to rest near the top of his thigh. If her ear was near his mouth she would have heard his sharp inhale at the tiny touch. Her ear was instead pressed against his chest, almost directly against his heart.

“I can hear your heartbeat, it jumped.”

“Well, you make me nervous,” he replied honestly and quietly.

**___________ Smut 18+ starts**

“I make you nervous? What about when I do this?” She asked in a sultry tone as her hand slid up his right thigh, ever so slightly rubbing against his crotch and then up his stomach. He gulped, eyes watching her every move as he nodded in response.

She smiled up at him and batted her eyelashes, she watched as the almost chemical reaction between them made his face turn rosy red, it travelled up his neck and darkened his cheeks. She moved to straddle him, sitting on his lap.

 He quickly moved his hands to her hips, gripping tightly. They both smiled into the kiss, teeth clashing and tongue biting as it got heated rather fast. It was almost as if they had done this a million times before instead of the contrary which was that they only had their first kiss this morning. 

The kiss was sloppy and completely new to them. A kiss, a simple chaste kiss was easy but this was like being thrown in the deep end with no knowledge of how to swim and Remus felt like he was trying to use his tongue to keep him afloat. Okay, probably a bad metaphor on his part. 

His hands travelled up her hips and caressed her sides sliding under her large sweater. Her hands wrapped around to the back of his neck, tugging his hair and scratching his skin lightly.

Y/n moved closer to him, pressing her chest on his and grinding against him. Through the many layers of jeans and cotton between them the friction was more than Remus could handle, not only was Remus inexperienced, much like Y/n was, but he hadn’t had a moment alone for so long. The only time he was alone was during the full moon. Every part of his being and his raging hormones were begging him to touch himself that night but he had so little time before he changed to do anything about it.

He had thought about it too, he had thought about doing this with her. Now that it was actually happening, and so fast, he couldn't control himself. He moaned loudly into her mouth, almost biting too hard on her tongue. She giggled in response, a light-hearted airy giggle that took Remus’ breath away even more.

Y/n wasn't as weak as Remus was, well not to say Remus was weak all the time but in this specific situation he was basically helpless, she had all the power and he was okay with that. She continued to grind down onto him, she felt his hard cock throbbing in his pants, it rubbed against her clothed clit and she moaned biting her lip. He wanted more and so did she but they were nowhere near ready to actually have sex, especially in the car in some empty parking lot.

They both needed a release though, and desperately. Y/n shifted her hips, wiggling so she could move back and away from him. She kept kissing him, craning her neck to reach him as she started undoing his pants. The action was easy enough for her to do, but as she reached to pull his pants down easily, he tried to do the same to her. Their arms tangled as they pulled on jean and zippers, Y/n finally stopped fidgeting with his underwear to shimmy getting her own pants down enough for his hand to fit in. Luckily her sweater was almost as long as a dress and if anyone happened to catch them she wouldn't be left completely exposed.

They didn't break the kiss for a moment as they reached into each others pants, she gripped his cock near the top, stroking at different paces and basing what was best off of his reactions. As she finally found a good pace she was distracted by Remus’ travelling fingers, they slid between her slit, spreading his fingers apart. He rubbed circles aimlessly until he found her clit, she moaned sweetly in his mouth, their noses squishing together.

He inserted one finger and then two, deciding that was probably good based on the sounds she made, he brought his thumb back to her clit, rubbing circles and pushing fingers as she pumped him rhythmically.

They didn't take long, they actually took longer to figure out how to do what they were doing, once they got it figured out it was mere minutes until they were falling apart in each other hands.

Remus came, making quite the mess as Y/n finished shortly after leaving a mess on his hands as well. They kept kissing, pausing only when Y/n whispered a cleaning spell and then pressed her lips back to his before she even said the last syllable.

They repeated their actions from before, but in reverse this time, Y/n fixed her pants and then their arms struggled to simultaneously zip and button up their Jeans.

**___________ Smut ends**

They pulled apart, his lips red and hers swollen but in a good way, like the way lips look after a having a cherry popsicle. Sweat collected on their foreheads like it was the middle of summer instead of November. Y/n took her long sweater sleeve and wiped Remus’ face, he smiled up at her as he did the same. She leaned back a bit, relaxing against the steering wheel that she didn't realize was so close to her.

Remus placed a hand on her chest, right where her ribs were and pushed her back making the horn honk, they both giggled, like little kids lost for words.

Y/n couldn't help but admire the way the sun shone on Remus’ pale skin, making him look like golden glass. 

It was the golden hour which was the most beautiful time of day, the sunset was coming shortly. Remus pulled Y/n’s arm pulling her down to fall beside him, she tucked herself in under his arm and they sat like that, they sat like that until the sunset started. The sky went from golden yellow to orangey-pink clouds floating in a sea of cherry red sky.

Y/n sat for a moment, wishing she could remember this, take a picture to keep forever, that was when she remembered she had actually brought her Polaroid camera with her. She meant to document the whole trip but she forgot until just now.

She leaned over into the back seat and came back over with an excited smile and her hands wrapped gently around the camera as she turned it on, the lens twisting open.

“I forgot I had this,” she commented as she moved towards the car window, she could have gotten out of the car but she wanted it to look exactly like the way she was seeing it. 

The picture showed the sunset in muted colours, the rearview mirror was in the top of the photo and the dirt on the window was evident, it was perfect.

She took the photo that came out and placed it on the dash of the car, she turned to Remus, he smiled goofily with his mouth too wide and his eyes squinted, it was still perfect. 

She went to sit back down but then Remus took the camera from her, she was sat cross-legged, one hand fiddling with the laces of her Doc Martens and the other completely hidden in her large sweater, her smile was bright but it was like she was trying not to make it too big but she couldn't help it, it was perfect anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY I took a week break because I wasn't feeling very excited to post a new part... If ur liking this story please let me know! Also heck my Tumblr @swellwriting for extras like drabbles and such!


	7. Bertram

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus and Mini meet Bertram Aubrey and find out exactly what he's been up to since Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THis chapter introduces a new character! he’s only mentioned in the books briefly but it was fun to sort of shape his character into whatever I wanted, and I accidentally made him dumb and lovable so I hope you love him as much as I do!!!

 

Word Count: 2.9k

Bertram Aubrey lived in Hastings. Y/n and Remus had begun their journey technically where Remus’ small home was, which was located in Yorkshire. It was roughly a 2 hour and 30-minute direct drive from one place to the other. Y/n and Remus didn’t start their adventure with this place in mind though, they had gone to small towns and countrysides, spent over a week living in the car in the forest, so once they had an actual destination in mind it didn't take long to get there at all.

Hastings runs along England's southeast coast, it’s a rather nice town with a good mix of muggle and magical places alike. Specifically where Bertram lived was a seaside cottage. The cottage was small but it was probably the most ideal little home Y/n had ever seen, Remus thought it was much better in comparison to his cottage.

This cottage was on its own, a lot of grass and wildflowers surrounding it until it reached the tree line which surrounded the sides of the house. It was like a cottage out of a movie, nothing Y/n had ever pictured Bertram living in. 

The front porch was nice too, it had one of those seat swings and it was situated so if you sat on it you could look straight down the empty country road that split the forest in two and led to a large field, it’s exactly what Y/n and Remus were looking at right now as Bertram went inside to grab drinks.

“This place is amazing, really.” Y/n commented to Bertram as he came back outside handing them both bottles of soda.

“Thanks, it was my Grandma’s, I'm the only grandchild so she really had no one else to give it to. Glad she didn't sell it, it’s perfect to run my business out of.” Bertram mentioned his business for the second time since they had gotten there which prompted Remus to finally ask about it.

“What is your business, if you don't mind me asking?”

Y/n and Remus were sat side by side on the porch swing and Bertram sat directly in front of them on a chair he had pulled over. He leaned closer to them on his chair like somebody was nearby and could hear them.

“Okay, it’s ingenious really! I buy things and resell them!” He smiled like he had just said the most inventive thing in the world.

“What kind of things?” Y/n asked in a voice full of worry. She was worried that Bertram was doing something inherently stupid, and she was right.

“Simple things, potions, charmed objects, magical creatures, if it’s magic in any way you name it and I buy it and resell it!” He looked so proud as he spoke about himself.

Y/n felt worry creeping up her spine, she had thought of where this was going but she was almost worried to ask her next question. “Bertram, who do you sell these things to? Wouldn't a normal wizard just go to a store?”

“That’s the beauty of it! Wizards can go to a potions store, they can go to Diagon Alley or any other store to get what they need but _Muggles_? They can't apparate to Diagon Alley! Muggles can’t use the Floo Network! So I go there myself,” he paused and pointed through the open screen door to the fireplace in the living room, “got a fireplace right there, and I buy things and sell them to the Muggles for a much higher price, it’s ingenious as I said before.”

Remus sat there in silence, staring blankly at the stupid man in front of him. Y/n felt like her heart had stopped, her friend who she had known for years, a kind man with good intent was illegally selling magic items to Muggles. “Bertram, that’s illegal, the Ministry will find out it's you sooner or later, they are gonna find out and you can be sent to prison for this!”

Bertram frowned for a moment before shrugging and waving his hand in the air. “Of course I won’t, don't be so worried, you were never a worrier before! Here let me show you my stock, I just did a big haul!”

Bertram stood up walking into his house and Y/n and Remus shared a look of “what did we just walk into,” before following him.

The cottage appeared small, at the entry was a living room containing a fireplace, a couch, large windows and many different plants. Then a small kitchen, a bedroom and many bookshelves lining any wall that didn't have a window. 

Bertram walked up to the one in the living room and pulled out a book that had a bit of a shiny glimmer to the spine. When he took it out the bookshelf disappeared into the ground and a secret room was revealed.

Bertram smiled sweetly, like this was completely normal, and guided the two of them into the room. The room was lined with shelves, like a storage room, and each shelf was filled with various potions and bottles and small objects in cases. There was a brewing station in one corner of the room but it looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time and someone had set it on fire based on the burnt cauldron covered in a thick layer of dust.

He spun around waiting for their reaction. “What do you think?”

“This is a lot of stuff Bertram, like a lot of stock to have, are all these even legal for wizards to own?” Y/n asked as she walked up to a shelf and examined a few labelled potions.

“Of course, if I can buy them they must be legal to own? What kind of question is that?”

“Okay, you can buy Dragon eggs but it’s not legal to own them, especially not a Dragon,” Remus commented trying to exaggerate the example to make it make sense to Bertram but he looked dumbly at Remus as if he was speaking Parseltongue.

“Why not?”

“Bertram don't tell me you have Dragon eggs.” Y/n said as she carefully placed a potion bottle down and began to look around the room for any eggs.

“I have more creature and beast related things in the basement!” He said excitedly and rushed out of the room, almost running to the opposite side of the living room. He went to the bookshelf which had two comfy chairs sitting in front of another large window right beside it, this place was actually quite cozy.

Remus followed Y/n out of the room, he took a second to try to close the bookshelf but decided it was best to not touch anything.

Bertram grabbed a similarly shiny book and the shelf disappeared just like the last one, but this time revealed a set of stairs.

“Follow me!” He exclaimed as he yelled, “Lumos!” and continued down the stairs, his loud voice echoing in their ears. Remus and Y/n both silently lit their wands, Remus was unsure why he yelled the spell in the first place.

“You still yell when you cast spells huh?” Y/n commented and Bertram quickly replied with a nod.

 “Of course!”

When they got to the end of the stairs they were met with a large room filled with various boxes, and a table with six dragon eggs or eggs of some sort just casually atop it.

“Oh, Bertram.” Y/n said, lost for any other words.

“Isn’t it cool! I inherited this place from my grandma right, as I said before, I was her only grandkid so I got all of her money too! After she died I built the attachments, it was sad at first because I know she would be upset if I made any changes to her house, but it worked out pretty well. If she ever came back as a ghost she wouldn't even be able to tell! Then I spent my inheritance on stock and started selling it!”

“How much do you sell Dragon Eggs for?” Remus inquired as he lightly moved one to examine it.

“Those are gold mines! I spent my savings on them, I bought them all for 3 million Galleons, but I can sell them for a million galleons each which triple’s my money!”

“How many have you sold?” Remus asked again, ignoring Bertram’s incorrect math.

“None yet, but when I do I will be rich!” Bertram said with a proud look on his face and Y/n offered him an endearing smile, having no words.

Nothing could have prepared them for this. It almost would have been better if they had found Bertram just to find out he had become a death eater or had turned to be a hermit in the woods or something. They had no idea how to even process their current situation, nevermind try to explain to Bertram why what he is doing is wrong.

-

The small cottage, which wasn’t actually so small if you included the secret room and basement, and the back porch that connected to a dock that stretched all the way from where the cottage was on the grass and across the small beach into the water. There was also a garage that was not attached to the house but there was a stairway that led to it from the basement. Remus and Y/n did not inquire as to what he kept in there.

-

Currently, the two were sat on the back porch, watching as the sun slowly went down, a mirror to yesterday night that made them both act awkwardly once they realized it.

Bertram was in the storage room and had been for over an hour.

“Should we check on him?” Y/n asked as she made no move to get up from the bench they were sat on, her legs lazily hanging over Remus’.

“I think it’s better that we pretend to be blind to the whole thing. I'm sure he’s fine he's a… professional at this.”

“A professional criminal? Bertram is just an idiot.” Y/n talked in a hushed tone, her face right beside Remus’ ear.

“Do you think when Sirius and James hexed him and made his head huge that when they shrunk it back down it caused brain damage?” Remus asked and Y/n choked out a laugh, covering her mouth and trying not to look so delighted by the joke.

“Remus, don't say that.”

“It’s a serious question!”

“No, he has always been that dumb, did you hear him yell that spell earlier, he has always done that, always.”

“Well, at least he’s nice.”

“He is, he has such a kind heart. I'm sure some Muggles he’s selling these things to really need them. The others are probably lying to him to trick him, I feel so bad.”

They sat silently for a minute, thinking separately over the different things Muggles would use magic items for until Remus remembered the dragon eggs. “I like that we are just casually sitting here knowing that there are six dragon eggs downstairs.”

“They are probably just rocks.”

“I hope so, I wonder how long he’s had them.”

Their conversation was interrupted when Bertram came outside, a couple of teacups floated through the air and fell into their hands. “Tea?” He asked as if they would say no to the cups already in their hands.

The two said thank you in unison and casually examined their cups before taking a sip, Bertram didn't notice since he was staring into the forest, which was odd because the sunset, a much more interesting view, was right in front of him.

“I lost a Murtlap in my first year here, it ran into the forest there and never came back! I woke up one morning with a bite but I never saw it, at least I think it was a Murtlap bite.” Bertram spoke whatever came to his mind leaving Remus and Y/n speechless yet again, he had quite a knack for saying or doing such outrageous things that any sane person would only be able to just stand there bewildered.

“So how long are you guys staying? You could stay forever if you wanted! Really it gets lonely out here, that’s why I was hoping the dragons would hatch soon. They are worth even more money once they hatch too.”

“Do you have the equipment or spells to handle them?” Y/n asked hoping he had something to control them but Bertram shook his head.

“Nope, but I had a crup once! Accidentally slammed one of his tails in a door so he ended up looking like a normal dog! I trained him to use a human toilet so I'm sure I could train some dragons to be friendly.”

They both sat there stunned again. Bertram really was harmless, he wasn't doing anything intentionally to put him or anyone in danger. He just didn't think about things and in turn ended up putting himself, and everyone in dragon-flying distance, in danger. 

Y/n looked at Remus and smiled before answering for them both.“Sure we might stay a bit! We have nowhere else to be really.”

“Great!” Bertram yelled as he stood up and walked away with no explanation as to where he was going.

Y/n and Remus stayed on the back porch well until the sun had set and only darkness surrounded them aside from a few mismatched lanterns that magically lit themselves when it turned dark.

Y/n had fallen asleep on Remus' shoulder, her legs still laying across his lap and he didn't bother moving, he wasn't entirely sure where they were going to sleep anyways. 

When Remus found he could barely keep his eyes open any longer he decided to get up, picking up Y/n as he stood, sliding his arms underneath her knees and arms. He kicked the door open lightly with his foot to find the couch in the living room had been transfigured into a bed, or maybe it was just one of those pull-out couches.

There were a bunch of thick hand-knitted blankets terribly folded at the end of the bed that had probably been made by Bertram's grandma. There was a note and an entire box of cookies on the coffee table that had been pushed to one side of the bed, the fireplace was magically lit providing the room with a glowy warmth. Remus carefully balanced on one foot, using his other to pull a blanket down and place Y/n there. He pulled the blanket up over her and then took an extra one from the end of the bed and layered it on her feet in case she needed it.

He walked over, grabbing a cookie and shoving the entire thing in his mouth before reading the note, which thankfully wasn't a warning not to eat the cookies.

_“I set the bed up just like how my grandma used to set it up for me! Don't worry the sheets and blankets are all cleaned. I'll be locked in my room all night and you won't see me until late afternoon, I'm forcing myself to get some work done. I realized I hadn't eaten dinner yet and neither had you two, so I took half of the cookies from the box, you can have the rest and whatever else you need from the kitchen, please don't eat the bananas I'm saving them to make banana bread, have you ever made banana bread?”_

Everything about the letter was weird, but Remus gathered that was just because Bertram was weird. He was locked in his own room, which is not normal, he had cookies for dinner, which is also not normal but Mr. “I live on coffee, cigarettes and chocolate” wasn't going to judge him on that part. Also, the way Bertram had asked a question at the end of the letter as if Remus or Y/n would write him back or answer it immediately?

Extra weird.

Remus shoved three more cookies in his mouth as he walked over to the fridge to get a drink, inside the fridge, there were two apples on a shelf instead of inside the fruit drawer. The fruit drawer was instead filled with packages of cheese. The milk was expired and there were a few glass bottles with blue shimmering liquid inside, with no labels. Remus closed the fridge and grabbed a cup, tap water was probably his safest bet even if it had lead or straight up dirt in it.

He got into the bed, pulled Y/n against his chest and kissed her forehead gently as to not wake her. She muttered a fragment of a word in her sleep but was otherwise undisturbed.

The cottage was peaceful, no noise aside from faint animal noises in the woods, no cars or people passing by, just the fear in the back of Remus mind that he was sleeping above six dragon eggs that could hatch at any moment.

Once morning came around, the potential danger of dragons had escaped Remus mind, instead, he was awoken from his dream by someone pounding on the door yelling in panicked anger.

“Bertram! Get your ass out here now! You have to explain yourself! Bertram!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my Tumblr @swellwriting to read/ request drabbles to go along with this series as well as to see accompanying artwork like Bertram's Character design! <3


	8. Lavender Honey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of fluff, some stupid Bertram comments as per usual, some smut, and a cliff hanger ending all in one chapter!
> 
> Warning: This chapter contains smut! it is clearly marked and easy to skip if its not ur cup of T.  
> Word Count: 4k
> 
> Also Please remember you can check my Tumblr anytime @swellwriting for blurbs art and to requests stuff! Thanks for reading my story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Remus never gets tired of the dragon egg jokes, everyone else may be but he’s not.

 

The angry pounding at the door continued as Y/n and Remus came to their senses. Through all the banging and yelling Bertram's door remained closed, either he was sleeping through this whole thing or he was purposefully ignoring it.

Y/n got up and stretched as she made her way to Bertram's bedroom door, unaware that he had locked himself in there since she hadn't read the letter he left them last night.

She tapped loud enough for her knocking to sound separate from the stranger outside. “Bertram, there is someone,  _ someone very angry _ , at the door.”

“I know!” Bertram whined, he was sat against the door listening and dreading having to face his problems, but at least he wasn't running away like Remus or Y/n probably would in this situation.

“Are you going to answer it? What do they want?”

“No! I won't answer it, can’t you tell he is angry?”

“Well, I don't think he is leaving anytime soon.”

“Just tell him I'm not here!” Bertram yelled in the same whiney voice, like a toddler.

Y/n got up and walked towards the door, she grabbed her wand from the floor beside the makeshift bed and yelled to the other side of the door.

“Bertrams not here!”

The person stopped pounding on the door and yelled back, still just as angry. “Bollocks he’s not there, a course he is! And he is going to answer to me! He is going to open this damn door!”

Y/n stepped away from the door and looked at Remus who was standing away from the window even though the curtains were pulled shut.

Remus walked over to Bertram's door and knocked. “Bertram, he isn’t going away. What did you do to piss him off so much anyway?”

“I don't know! Maybe I sold him the wrong potion, maybe I got the bottles mixed up, I do that sometimes.”

Y/n sighed and placed a hand on her forehead, stressed with this entire situation. She turned to the door again and just repeated herself. “Look, I'm very sorry I wish I could help you but Bertram isn't here, I don't know what else to tell you.”

“That’s it, I'm going to report this to the police! And if they think I'm crazy I’ll find the magic police, someone will make you accountable, there must be regulations for a business of this sort. You can’t sell me a love potion that is actually a fire breathing potion and expect to get away with it!”

Remus peaked out the window and watched as the angry man stormed down to the road and got in his car speeding away and disappearing into the distance.

Y/n placed her head against the door, relieved to at least have made the man go away.

“Good morning.” Remus joked as he fixed the blankets on the bed and flicked his wand transfiguring the bed back into a couch. “Fancy some breakfast?”

“Please.” She groaned and they went to the kitchen to find some sort of food. Y/n sat on the stool against the counter and propped her head up with her hands watching Remus try to sort through the fridge.

“Slim pickings I'm assuming?” She asked and Remus closed the fridge with a nod.

“I could always fry up some Dragon eggs?”

“Very funny. Is there any bread in the cupboard there?” Y/n asked and Remus opened the cupboard beside the fridge.

“Yes, there are seven, seven loaves of the same type of bread. And we have a toaster, all we need is,” Remus paused as he looked through the other cupboards, “Peanut butter?”

“Perfect.”

Remus made them both toast and sorted through the cupboards to find them some coffee and tea.

They sat silently, backs arched as they leaned their elbows on the counter in front of them, kitchen islands are really impractical for posture. Bertram opened his door and peeked out, hoping they wouldn't see him but they both turned their heads in sync, looking at Bertram when his door creaked and gave him away.

He was very clearly trying to sneak out.

“If you were trying to sneak past us you could have gone out the window, or even apparated away?” Y/n questioned as she munched down on her toast, she wasn't angry with him and Bertram was visibly relieved.

“I thought you might be sleeping, I was trying to be quiet.”

“We spoke to you less than five minutes ago.” Remus deadpanned from behind his coffee mug.

Bertram just nodded, accepting that he had been caught and was out of dumb excuses.

“You really fucked up.” Y/n said as she wiped some crumbs off the counter, “mixing up a love potion with one that makes you breathe fire? A big difference with those, a dangerous difference.”

“Honestly I think they are equally as dangerous, given the nature of some love potions and all,” Remus commented, humour dark like his coffee.

“I know.” Bertram pouted in the same whiney voice from earlier, falling onto the couch with a huff.

“Well next time he comes you should really talk to him, offer him a free dragon egg for his troubles or something.” Remus teased.

“We can just Obliviate him? If he comes back.” Y/n said giving Remus a questioning look as if to ask him for his input.

“You want us to obliviate him?” Remus asked.

“I mean it’s what we are supposed to do when we find out a muggle has seen magic of some sort.” She explained.

“You’re right, I guess it keeps our hands clean too. If he does find the ministry somehow and he gets here before them at least we can say we tried.” Remus offered but Bertram stood up walking across the room swiftly.

“He won't be able to contact the ministry he’s a muggle!” He argued.

“Well, he found a way to get his muggle hands on magic potions so if he’s determined I'm sure he will find a way to contact them somehow, we just have to hope he tries to come back here first.” Y/n placed a hand lightly on Bertram's shoulder, trying to comfort him as his wide bloodshot eyes gave away how stressed and tired he was.

Bertram just nodded slowly, squinting his eyes as he was in deep thought. He offered no explanation before grabbing his wand and a fist full of floo powder before disappearing in a flash of green fire.

“Okay, see you later Bertram!” Remus sarcastically said as he stood up and patted his palms against his legs looking around for what to do now. Y/n was just standing there leaning against the counter waiting for Remus to do or say something. It was nice being in one place after weeks of travelling, nowhere to go. The forest was nice in that sense but it was like camping, and you can only enjoy camping for so long. There comes a point where a real hot shower and a big warm bed are deeply missed.

“This cottage is really nice actually, needs a bit of cleaning though.”

“Are you suggested we clean it?” Y/n asked with a smile, cleaning wasn't nearly as much of a dreadful task when magic was involved.

“Sure.”

With no further words exchanged the two started cleaning, falling into a good rhythm, they really were a good team. Y/n opened the curtains and cracked the windows to let in some fresh air, Remus found a closet with cleaning supplies that flew out and started cleaning once he opened the door. 

They started grabbing books that had fallen off the moving bookshelves and arranged them neatly, Y/n ran her fingers across the spines as she skimmed through the titles, “there are some good books here.”

“I’d hate to say Bertram has good taste.” Remus teased.

“There's no way these are his, they are his grandmothers I'm sure, I think everything here is.”

“Except the illegal stuff.” Remus joked and they both laughed, Y/n placed a finger over the shiny book that would open the storage room but looked hesitantly at Remus before daring to move it.

“We should let the cleaning supplies get in here don't ya think?”

“Yeah, they will be gentle. Better than if we, or dare I say, Bertram, were to try and clean in there.”

With a giggle Y/n pulled the book out, stepping back as the bookshelf disappeared into the floor. She stepped aside and the cleaning supplies that had just finished cleaning the kitchen and living room went inside. She stood patiently, watching as the charmed cleaning supplies cleaned everything, dusting the shelves and mopping the floor, cleaning the burnt cauldron so it sparkled again. They flew out and Remus was waiting on the other side of the room to let them into the basement. After that, they dared to even let the supplies in Bertram's bedroom and the bathroom that they hadn't even noticed.

Y/n and Remus stood in the doorway of the bathroom, it was nice, arguably the nicest part of the house. Maybe that's just the opinion of Y/n and Remus, two people who have been living outdoors and on this wild runaway adventure with no nice bathrooms, and also the biggest introverts you could ever meet.

Maybe that’s why this cottage with its secluded location, wall-length bookshelves, large windows, comfy couches, isolated backyard and now a lavish bathroom with a huge bathtub and separate shower, was so appealing to them.

“We have cleaned the entire house, now it’s time for the house to clean us!” Y/n said excitedly as she ran across the room to the bathtub and kneeled in front of it placing her arms and hands over the side as she admired the smooth porcelain.

“Not sure that makes sense but I get the point.” Remus teased.

Y/n looked up at him with the biggest eyes of admiration, the kind she had always looked at him with, though he was unaware of it most times. “If you need me I’ll be in here for the next five years.”

“I think that’s ample time for relaxation, would you like me to grab you a book and your pyjamas from the car?”

Remus leaned down a bit as he spoke to her, grabbing her cheeks gently and squeezing them before he moved his hand to the side, she nuzzled her cheek into his palm as she smiled, shutting her eyes. It was a peaceful expression, Remus almost didn’t want to look away.

“It's not even noon, you think I should put my pyjamas on already?” She asked, eyes still shut and a smile still across her face.

“Well, why not, it's not like we are going anywhere.”

“You’re just full of brilliant ideas today aren't you.”

Remus chuckled as he placed a kiss on her forehead before standing back up and leaving the room. As he shut the door, not knowing when Bertram would be back, he heard the tap turn on and the sound of Y/n shuffling through the cabinet for bath products.

When he got back, with a good book that he picked out for her guessing what she would like based off how well he knew her, and a pair of pyjamas which were just plaid pyjama shorts and a very oversized t-shirt that he recognized as probably being one of James’, he knocked quietly before creaking the door open.

“I have your requested supplies, Mini.”

“You sound like my potions assistant again.” Y/n joked from inside the tub, she was fully submerged and hidden behind a mountain of purple bubbles, the room smelled like lavender and honey and the bathwater was so hot the mirror was already fogged up.

“No potion supplies here, just a book and some Pj’s.” Remus smiled as he tried to avoid looking in the soapy water, he placed the items on a dry part of the counter beside the sink.

“Come ‘ere” Y/n almost whispered and Remus instantly abided before she even finished her words.

He leaned against the side of the tub, knees against the floor and elbows resting on the edge, his sleeves already a bit damp. Y/n grabbed some bubbles on her fingertips and rubbed them across Remus’ face, leaving some to pile up on top of his nose. He scrunched his face up as if it bothered him but his smile and red cheeks gave him away.

“How can I ever thank you?” she asked quietly as she ran her fingers through the curls that fell in his face, getting them wet as she played with them.

“You can thank me by having a relaxing bath with  _ me _ sometime.” He suggested.

“Some time? But there's one right here right now!” She said in a slow teasing tone that made Remus’ heart beat faster, he gripped the side of the tub, knuckles turning white as his mind raced.

“You want me to come in there? With you?” He asked timidly. 

They hadn’t done much since that night in the car, even that was mere foreplay, they hadn't even kissed that much since then, not having a moment alone without Bertram hovering around. Neither of them being big on PDA. 

Y/n just nodded, a wicked smile on her face.

Remus put his hand in the water swooshing it around, “If I get in there it will overflow and spill everywhere.”

“Oh no, too bad we don't have a magic mop in the other room.” 

______ SMUT _____________Starts

She smiled as she got on her knees bringing her upper half out of the water, wet and sudsy skin making Remus blush more. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him close so his lips were on hers, she kissed him quickly, unsure of how much time they truly had. Remus moved his hands to her breasts, rubbing his fingers gently across the bubbles, brushing against her nipples with his fingertips and before he knew it he was being pulled in with a splash and a flood spilled on the floor.

The bathtub was big enough that they could both fit if they were careful but they were in such a heated hurry that they splashed about as they moved around, kissing intensely only pausing to smile on each other's lips. Y/n had her back against the porcelain tub as Remus hovered over her. His clothes were too wet and heavy to easily take off on his own so Y/n slowly peeled them off piece by piece as he slid his hand between her thighs. 

Her legs spread as far as they could since she was pinned beneath him, his knees on either side of her hips. His fingers pushed inside her with little rhythm, every time he moved his arm the water would spill over the side of the tub a little more. 

Her fingers fiddled with his pants, trying to get them off him but the effort proved useless. He smiled against her cheek as he moved to kiss down her neck before pulling his fingers away and moving his hands to grip her hips, carefully wrapping her legs around his waist and then lifting them both out of the tub. Taking careful steps around the bubbly puddles and then placing her on the bathroom counter. The cold smooth tile underneath her warm bare skin.

Remus was still wearing his pants, his shirt and sweater were successfully taken off by Y/n in the tub. He stood between Y/n’s legs as she wrapped them around his waist and pulled him closer to her. She continued her mission from before, if she was completely naked why shouldn’t he be. It took a bit of teamwork to get his soaked jeans off of him, building up the tension and impatience they were both feeling for one another. 

She wanted to see him completely naked for so long, the last time they did this it left too much to the imagination, and when they went swimming he was hidden under the water from her examining and detail searching eyes.

She didn’t get to spend too much time admiring his pale skin, covered in scars and odd freckles here and there before he grabbed her face, kissing her roughly before pushing inside of her. They both gasped, shocked at the new feeling. His hands moved from gently holding her cheeks to grabbing her hips, pulling her closer to him with each thrust.

She wrapped her hands around his shoulders, moving her hands over his wet back, digging her nails in to keep him close.

Remus placed a hand on the mirror to steady himself. This was not the smartest way for them to do this for the first time, it was clumsy and slippery and desperate and exploratory and not thoroughly planned out like everything they do together. His hand slides against the glass of the mirror as he thrusts faster and deeper, his forehead is pressed to hers because he can’t focus on this and kissing her at the same time.

She wants to say something but isn’t sure what’s right to say, her mind is clouded and all she can think of, all she can feel is him.

“Rem, Remus…” She muttered through scattered breaths as the tension-filled her stomach as she came undone. Remus thrust a few more times before coming, kissing her and pushing her against the mirror to her back.

He pulled away from the kiss, smiling sheepishly at her and she just smiled back at him.

“Now I feel like I need another bath.”

“That can be arranged,” he teased before he kissed her once more.

\------------------------------------------smut ends

-

Bertram rushed around the small kitchen making some sort of food, Y/n was sat on the stool at the kitchen island and Remus was stood on the other side of it, trying not to be in Bertram's way. They were unfazed by the commotion Bertram was causing, he insisted he didn't need any help. 

Bertram had been gone almost all day and had only come back around 6 pm, with a few groceries in hand thankfully.

Y/n looked at Remus from behind her mug, her eyes travelled from the floor and then up to his face. He was already looking at her. They both stayed like that, silently examining each other, a smile broke across Y/n’s face, simply because he made her happy.

They looked at the faces in front of them, wondering how they went from strangers to classmates, to acquaintances and then to this, whatever this was. They went from existing in the same small world to being each other's whole lives, their points of view focused on each other. 

The background blurred when she stared at him, she took a sip from her tea and he raised a teasing brow. He was about to tease her, tell her to take a picture as it would last longer, but smoke passed in front of his face catching both their attention.

It was clear Bertram really did need help.

Remus chuckled and turned to help him as Y/n watched in amusement from her seat. After a few struggled minutes Y/n was presented with a plate with two burnt pancakes on it.

Before they could all sit down and enjoy the sweet moment and the hopefully sweet pancakes, there was a loud banging on the door again. All of their smiles faded.

“Bertram! Open the door. Answer me you lying bastard!”

Remus was the first to stand he walked over to the door and went to turn the nob to open it but Bertram ran up behind him.

“No.” He whispered but Remus shook his head. 

“You can’t hide forever. Just obliviate him.” Remus said before he forced the door open, his wand in his hand hidden behind his back.

The man started yelling but Bertram said nothing in response he stared blankly at the angry man in front of him.

“Bertram, do it!” Y/n yelled from her seat as she watched nervously.

Bertram shook his head, a clear look of fear on his face so Remus pushed him aside, silently casting obliviate on the angry muggle in front of him.

Suddenly three Auror’s appeared, wands drawn. The muggle man looked around confused as ever as to where he was and what was happening.

“You obliviated him?” One of the Aurors asked as she looked at the muggle.

Bertram shook his head, making them believe that Remus was who they were looking for.

“So you are Bertram Aubrey then?” The woman asked Remus and he shook his head. One of the Aurors stepped forward, Remus recognized him. 

Of the three Aurors in front of them, there was a woman he didn’t recognize but looked not much older than him, and two men who he recognized as Dirk Cresswell and Davey Gudgeon. 

“No, that's Remus Lupin,” Davey said.

“Uh yeah, that's Bertram, but I am the one who Obliviated the muggle, that's a law. I followed the law.” Remus said, he was panicked but he was trying to sound calm and sure of himself as he spoke slowly and clearly.

“We know the laws, and being apart of the black market for potions and creatures is against the law.” The woman snapped at him.

“I'm not,” Remus argued but he was interrupted by Dirk.

“Then why obliviate him?”

Remus didn't want to admit that he knew what Bertram was doing and he couldn't think of any excuses fast enough.

“That's what I thought,” Dirk said as they went behind Remus and used a spell to lock his arms behind his back, they did the same to Bertram.

Y/n ran to the door, not worried about being arrested herself.

“You can’t take him! He's innocent I swear.” She pleaded, tears filling her eyes at the sight of Remus being pulled away.

“Well, even if he is, he just obliviated our witness so I think he will prove useful. Stay safe out here all alone little lady, there are wolves in these woods I hear.” Dirk teased.

“Sorry about this Y/n, and I’m sorry about James too. Just stay here in case we need to come back for you, we have no reason to take you in now but please don't run.” Davey said before they all apparated away leaving Y/n standing in the doorway by herself, unable to do anything to help them. 

She was alone now, in a place that wasn’t home and only felt like it because of who she was with. The backseat of the car felt like home with Remus there, the forest felt like home and the shitty motels did too as long as Remus was there with her. But now he wasn't.

Loneliness consumed her and she fell to her knees as she whispered to herself.

“What do  _ I _ do now?”

The emphasis on the  _ I _ hurt, because the honesty of it all was that Remus wasn't there to ask her this. He wasn't there for her to focus on and guide, Bertram wasn’t there to be clueless and she had never felt so hopeless and powerless. How could Davey look at her, offer his empty apologies to her and then take them away anyways, leave her there? They weren't close friends at all but he knew James, how could he take Remus away like that?

She sat like that for an hour staring down the driveway, until a black shaggy dog ran down the road and stopped at the door, staring at her through the thin screen.

At first, she thought it was a wolf, but as it got closer she realized it wasn’t.

She didn't fear the dog, she welcomed anything to cease the loneliness, but its eyes seemed not those of a dog but of a human.

Where did this mysterious dog come from?


	9. Part 9 Veritaserum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I left you guys with quite the cliffhanger on that last chapter! Only one more part after this! Hope you guys enjoy :) Sorry for the missed week, i was camping for anyone who didn't know. 
> 
> Word Count: 3.5k

 

The dog sat patiently on the opposite side of the screen door. Y/n was more curious than scared of it, it was just a dog anyways, the man she was in love with was a werewolf so a dog really wasn't much to fear.

“Hi  _ dog _ .” She said and it’s head tilted to one side as if it was listening.

“You lost or something? Me too, well I'm not technically lost, but I  _ feel _ like I am.”

The dog stayed silent, staring at her intently.

“You see, my friend, one of the few still alive actually, just got arrested by a few Aurors, I knew two of them from school actually. They also took my boyfriend, it feels weird to call him that out loud. I just feel really alone, like everything I have been doing for the past month or so has been so in the moment, and I've had Remus with me the whole time but now I'm alone and just sitting here is driving me crazy! I'm talking to a dog!”

She spilled all her feelings out loud, it felt good but it also brought tears to her eyes, her face fell to her hands as she still sat on the floor, a puddle of her own misery.

“You're not alone.” A voice said from the other side of the door, a voice she recognized. She looked up and saw a filthy looking Sirius Black, head to toe in an Azkaban uniform.

“No,” Y/n whispered to herself as she fumbled around, moving away from the door and grabbing her wand, she pushed herself across the floor shaking her head as she repeated, “no, no no no. Not you.”

“Y/n listen to me. I know I don't know you very well but,” he tried to open the screen door and come in but she raised her wand and interrupted him.

“Don't you dare come in here or I'll kill you I swear I will.”

Sirius backed away from the door and lifted his hands in the air. 

Y/n got to her feet, standing and still holding her wand out. “You're supposed to be in Azkaban! Oh, Merlin, you’re here to finish the job, to kill Harry aren't you, he isn't here, no one is here!” She cried out.

“I'm not here to hurt you, please let me explain.”

Y/n stared at him for a few minutes, thinking of what she could do. She finally dropped her arm to her side, lowering her wand, she moved her other hand making the door open, “Fuck it, I might as well hear your story before you kill me,” she said with a tired shrug as she walked over to the couch and sat down. Sirius hesitantly walked in the door and then sat on the edge of the windowsill, not wanting to sit too close to her on the couch and freak her out.

“Explain Black,” she muttered crossing her arms and leaning back into the cushions.

-

After about an hour of talking and explaining Y/n finally understood.

“Okay, so Peter was made the secret keeper, he told Voldemort their location and got them killed. The only person who knew Peter was the secret keeper was you, and James and Lily. Remus didn't get told because you didn't trust him?”

“To be fair he didn't trust me either,” Sirius interjected.

“That's ridiculous, Remus would never.”

“Neither would I!” He argued defending himself.

“Okay, Peter does seem the type, he always weirded me out.” She admitted and then shook her head, trying to focus on what she was saying before.

“So, you went after Peter, he cut off his finger to make it look like you killed him and then that helped frame you for the whole thing even more, why not go to someone else, why not Dumbledore.”

“I was angry, I wanted to get to Peter first.”

“So now you have escaped Azkaban, in your handy unregistered Animagus form and you came here why?”

“I went to your house, thinking you would have gotten custody of Harry, but it was empty, then I went to Remus’ house but it was empty too. I met Hagrid at a pub and he told me that you and Remus left town before the funeral was even over and you hadn't been seen since. So I tracked you down until I got here and saw them apparating away.”

She just nodded and then stood up, walking to the bookshelf and pulling on the shiny book, she disappeared into the room and came back out with a small bottle in her hand.

“Drink this, then tell me all of that again.” She said with a stern look on her face.

“Why wouldn’t you make me drink this first?” He asked but quickly took the bottle from her hand when she scowled at him, clearly not in any place to be joking with her yet.

He drank the liquid with no questions, it could be poison for all he knew. Then he repeated his story, all the facts stayed exactly the same and she knew he was telling the truth.

He smiled at her as he finished, proud that she would now believe him but all she gave him in return was a frown. She walked over and hugged him tightly, feeling sorry for everything he had been through, for what Peter had done to him and to them.

“Why do all these terrible things have to happen all the time. What did we do to deserve this?”

“We fought in a war, we had to lose a lot to win.”

“We lost too much.” Y/n said sadly, thinking about Harry and how much she missed him.

“I know it feels that way, but we haven't really lost Harry, we can get him back, I will get him back I promise.”

“Maybe you should just promise to have a shower first.” She commented as she pulled away from him dramatically waving the air in front of her nose.

“Gladly.” He smiled and she pointed down the hall and he followed her finger finding the bathroom. She knocked on the door a few minutes later with some random clothing she had found, it was probably Bertrams, leaving it on the counter for him.

The next day Sirius and Y/n were sat in the backyard, it was a snowy day, Y/n had a blanket around her shoulders as they drank tea and watched the frozen snowy lake.

They both turned when they heard the front door open. “Y/n?” Remus called out and they both froze as he made his way to the backyard.

Remus opened the door and his smile faded to a look of pure confusion.

“What the fuck?” He said more to himself. He raised his wand at Sirius and then looked at Y/n, he looked almost hurt. “What are you doing here?” He asked with anger filling each word.

“Look Remus I can explain!” Sirius said standing up, Y/n sat there worried about either of them doing anything rash.

“Listen to your lies? I’d rather not, you’re a murderer and a traitor!” Remus was angry, angrier than Y/n had ever seen him.

Y/n stood up, dropped the blanket and walked over to Remus to grab his empty hand.

“Rem, he didn’t lie to me, he told me the truth. I gave him Veritaserum, you should listen to him, please.” She said quietly as she held his hand in both of hers and placed her forehead on his shoulder. He relaxed at her gentle words and her touch, lowering his wand and giving her his full attention. He grabbed her face with his hands and kissed her forehead slowly, “I missed you,” he whispered against her skin, closing his eyes, ignoring Sirius completely.

“Are you okay?” She asked as she moved her hands around his body, checking to see if they hurt him but Remus grabbed her hands stopping her and wrapping them around him.

“I'm okay,” he said, sounding not so angry anymore but just tired instead, he probably hadn't slept at all, the full moon was coming closer, he was probably worried they would hold him too long and find out.

“It’s nice,” Sirius commented as Remus sat down in Y/n’s chair, picking up the blanket and then letting Y/n sit on his lap, wrapping it around her.

“What's nice?” He asked, not yet looking at Sirius. “Here ya go Mini,” he said to her, making sure she was comfortable.

“Seeing you in love, it’s nice, you deserve it.”

“Thank you,” Remus said flatly, “Now explain.”

- 

After Sirius explained everything to Remus, that wasn't the end, they weren't back to being the friends they once were, there were still issues that needed time to dissipate. They needed to relearn to be friends and trust each other again like they used to.

Sirius was making something in the kitchen and Y/n and Remus were sat on the two armchairs reading, or Y/n was reading, Remus was staring at a shirtless Sirius.

Remus had always been jealous, perhaps minorly attracted to Sirius in the past. He didn’t want to see Sirius with no shirt on, his scarless and toned chest with tattoos covering his skin, his long hair and a full beard. All things Remus felt he would never have. Y/n paid no mind to either of them, her book was too captivating but she was brought out of it as Remus spoke. “If you’re going to stay here you can’t look like that.” 

“Like what?” Sirius asked, “ridiculously and roguishly handsome?”

“No,” Remus stated and looked at Y/n silencing her giggle. “You look exactly like the last time I saw you, you look like Sirius Black and if you want to hide you need to look at least a little bit different.

“I look different!” Sirius argued playfully, “now I have prison tattoos!” he laughed wiggling his eyebrows and pointing to his chest with one hand and shoving a sandwich into his mouth with the other.

“I agree, with Remus.” Y/n said standing up and walking over to Sirius. “Trust me?” She asked before gesturing for him to follow her to the bathroom.

Sirius shrugged with a mouthful of food, and followed her, Remus followed too.

“Sit on the edge of the tub.” She ordered and Sirius listened, Y/n grabbed a pair of scissors from the drawer and then stood beside him, pushing his shoulder so he would lean back and his hair would fall into the tub.

“You know how long I've been growing this for?” Sirius asked, not ready to be parting with his long hair.

“Since you ran away and your mother stopped making you cut it,” Remus answered from the doorway.

“You’re actually spot on there Moony.”

“Well, I remember, I've only known you since first year.”

“I barely know you and even I could have answered that.” Y/n teased as she cut a piece of hair right above his ear.

‘That’s so short!” Sirius yelled as he looked in the bathtub.

“It’s gonna be really short if you don't stop moving.”

Sirius mumbled something unhappy in response as he felt his hair fall off his shoulders and the scissors slide against his scalp. When Y/n was finished it didn't look that bad, it looked good actually and Sirius smiled when he looked in the mirror. It was a bit shorter at the sides and still long enough on top so he could push back his unruly hair.

“Now this.” Y/n said pointing to his still bare chest.

“What? You want me to gain weight or something?” Sirius asked and Y/n shook her head.

“No you can stay whatever shape and size you’d like, but the tattoos...”

“I can’t have no tattoos ” Sirius argued as he wrapped his arms around his chest hiding them.

“I didn’t say I wanted them gone.” Y/n stated before she left the room, Sirius looked at Remus and he just shrugged, equally as confused as Sirius was.

Y/n went to the hidden room and searched around for some charmed ink and a tattoo quill. She went back into the bathroom and placed the stuff on the counter.

“Okay how many do you have and where.”

“They are all over really.”

“Then strip,” Y/n ordered and Sirius obliged, Remus, covered his face with his hands.

“Please tell me you left your underwear on?” He asked and Y/n laughed at him.

“Of course he did. Wait, you don't have any tattoos on your ass do you?” She asked, still laughing at the situation.

“Unluckily enough for you, no I don't.” Sirius teased but Remus glared at him making him take back his comment, “Just a joke, sorry Moons.”

Y/n giggled as she dipped the quill in the ink and started changing the tattoos, adding onto them or covering them up with something else similar, based on what she thought Sirius would like. After a few minutes she was done and the ink was set into his skin. Sirius looked in the mirror and then put his hand out for Y/n to high five. “You’ve got a talent for that.”

“Do I? Maybe I should open a business for everyone who escapes Azkaban and needs a makeover, oh wait, you’re the only person to ever escape, wouldn't be a great business model.” She joked and Sirius laughed. 

“Thank you. At least I still look good, right Remus?” He said before winking at Remus and leaving the room.

Remus was taken aback by the wink and comment from his friend and Y/n giggled. “Well, if you don't want him teasing me, you’re all he has. Until Bertram comes back.” 

Remus followed Y/n into the living room. “Oh Mini, I forgot to tell you.”

She turned quickly almost dropping the ink in her hands, “Tell me what?”

“Well, I obviously had to answer their questions honestly.” Remus paused and Y/n put the things down and grabbed his hand. 

“Of course.” she agreed.

“Bertram could be sentenced to life in prison, not Azkaban or death but still, I don't see him coming back anytime soon, they said I could come back here but not to touch anything of Bertrams. I guess they might show up some time to search the place.”

“And you never thought to tell us this!” Sirius exclaimed, sounding worried.

“I forgot, I was so distracted by you being here and Y/n, I just, you of all people can't get mad at me for not telling you something!”

“Fair enough, but if the Ministry comes looking, I can't be here.”

“I'm sorry I forgot,” Remus said now looking at Y/n.

“It's okay Rem. You wash his hair down the drain, I'm putting this quill and Ink back. Sirius take your prison clothes out to the forest and burn them. If they show up, go into your Animagus form and stay out of the way, if you can get to the forest unsuspiciously then do that. They won't be looking for Sirius which is our advantage, they don't think he is here so as long as we let them do what they need it will all be fine.” Y/n ordered and everyone scrambled around the house doing what she said.

Remus finished in the bathroom as Y/n closed the supply room back up and grabbed her book, sitting down to read again as Remus joined her. Sirius was in dog form running back from the forest when he saw the three Aurors apparate onto the driveway, he stopped running and then snuck back into the forest quietly, thankfully it was dark out.

“Y/n, Remus, are you home?” Davey asked as he knocked on the door. Y/n got up and opened it.

“Hi Davey, Hi Dirk, and?”

“Bertha, but that’s not important.” The woman said as she handed Y/n the search order from the ministry pushing her aside as she walked in.

“We have to search the place and bring anything that’s evidence or illegal back with us so just stay out of the way and it’ll be done soon,” Davey said with a kind smile before they started searching the house.

Bertha grabbed a book opening the basement doorway and was about to walk in.

“Oh, there's also-” Y/n started but was interrupted.

“Be quiet, do not interfere with a ministry investigation, you shouldn't even be in here!” She barked and Y/n took a step back, not thinking she would be yelled at for trying to help.

“Fine.” She replied and crossed her arms before walking to sit outside, Remus followed her.

They casually looked into the forest, hoping Sirius wouldn't come back anytime soon, they assumed he saw the Aurors and went back to hide, his paw prints slowly being hidden by the falling snow.

They spent over two hours searching through the whole place, sending most of the things to the Ministry. Remus watched through the kitchen window and mumbled a “Thank Merlin” to himself when he watched them take away the Dragon Eggs.

They didn't seem to discover the upstairs storage room and Y/n wasn't about to tell them about it, she was basically told to shut up by Bertha so she did just that.

Davey walked onto the back porch. “Hey guys, sorry for the trouble. We have everything we need, the rest of the place is clean so you can really do whatever you want with the stuff.”

“What about Bertram?” Y/n asked, going back inside the warm cottage.

“He’s going to trial. I think his lawyer might try to plead willful negligence or something, I know Bertram isn’t the smartest but he definitely knew what he was doing. I’ll send an owl with the trial date.”

“Thanks, Davey.” Y/n said.

“Look, Remus, I'm sorry too about what happened. You should have been released much sooner but Bertha wanted to hold you for trial, she is…” Davey tried to explain but was lost for words of how to describe his horrific coworker.

“An absolute delight!” Y/n said sarcastically.

“I was never told why I got released,” Remus mentioned, curious as to how he went from awaiting trial to being a free man.

“Bertha might have been head of this case, but she was overruled. Moody ordered you be set free and all charges against you to be dropped.”

“Moody?” Y/n asked unsure of who that was.

“Alistair Moody? Mad-eye Moody? Whatever you want to call him.”

“Oh, I remember him.” She said with a nod.

“I’ll have to thank him,” Remus said with a smile, remembering the man who was a friend and fellow member of The Order.

“Oh, he sure does love thank you’s, might as well send him some flowers too.” Davey joked before Bertha yelled for him to hurry up, “Bye,” he said with a smile before he went out front and they all apparated away.

-

Sirius eventually came back when he thought the coast would be clear.

Y/n and Remus had fallen asleep on the couch before they had taken the time to turn it into their bed. Sirius walked up to the backdoor and noticed that one of them, probably Y/n, had transfigured the backdoor to have a doggy door so Sirius could get through without changing, smart. He sniffed around the house to make sure it was safe before turning human and writing a note for his friends to wake up to.

**_Remus & Y/n, thank you for believing me and trusting me. I thought I’d be all on my own but your friendship means the world to me. _ **

**_I’ll be gone for a while, hopefully just a week or so. I’ll come back soon I promise. I'm going to get Harry back, don't worry about me and don't worry about him. If I get caught all they'll do is kill me, and I’d gladly die trying to save Harry from those horrid muggles._ **

**_Ps. Remus,_ ** **_I cannot believe you actually thought I was capable of killing our friends! You absolute mumbling idiot, was your brain stomped on by a Hippogriff? Merlin’s beard..._ **

**_Jokes aside, I'm glad to have seen you again, I missed you. See you both soon._ **

**_xx Sirius_ **

Remus woke up in the middle of the night with Y/n on top of him, almost hanging off of the couch. He gently lifted her off, picking her up and changing the bed so he could place her back down, she didn't wake in the slightest.

He looked around for Sirius but saw only puddles where his snowy footprints would have been, he walked to the counter and read the note, he was too tired to worry about it right now so he went back to bed, he would tell Y/n in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my Tumblr @swellwriting for more stories like these, and to request drabbles for this series and any other fandoms I write for!   
> THanks for reading! Only one more final part next Thursday!!!


	10. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: WOWIE this it is…the LAST PART. I’m kind of sad to say goodbye to this series, I spent a lot of time writing this and Thursdays just won’t feel the same anymore… I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do. CHEERs to happy endings!!!!
> 
> Word Count: 4k

It took a while for Mini and Remus to feel comfortable living in the cottage. So many things felt wrong all the time. Everything in the cottage didn't belong to them, it was all Bertrams and he wasn't there, it left this hole, this empty feeling. 

Sirius had also left, Y/n took that hard as well too, Sirius reminded her of James and it was nice to have him around for that short time. When she found herself alone and scared Sirius showed up, she felt like he needed protection but how could she help keep him safe if he had just left with no detailed explanation.

Sirius said he was going to get Harry but they had no idea of what that entailed? They didn't want Harry hurt, they didn't want to get Harry back in some illegal kidnapping situation, so they just tried to find things to calm and distract their minds.

There were a lot of things to be done in the house too, the Aurors completely missed clearing out the storage room upstairs, Y/n and Remus were scared to even go in there because they weren't sure what was inside, but they did need to clear it out.

If Sirius did manage to get back to them, with Harry or not, he would need a room, a hidden one like the storage room was perfect because then the Ministry didn't know it existed. Y/n stood in front of the door she had just opened and was hesitant before walking in.

“What's the worst that could be in there?” Remus asked with a laugh as he walked past her into the room looking around, “I didn't see any Dragon eggs at least.”

“Thankfully.” Y/n hummed as she picked up some of the bottles reading them. They must have been extremely lucky because every potion they found was just a regular kind, nothing illegal was stored in there. Remus sent the potions into the basement were Y/n was organizing them by alphabetical order and taking stock of what they had, they even moved the brewing station to the basement since they now had Y/n there who could actually put it to good use. Remus eventually made his way into the basement to see she had moved everything to one side of the main room, she had her arms crossed, deep in thought.

“Whatcha thinking about?”

“Well, we need more rooms and if we put a wall here and split this room in two, so the storage is here and then the far half over there can be a room. That way it's still attached to the bathroom down here.”

“I didn't even know there was a bathroom down here.”

“It's not bad actually, the cleaning supplies must have found it back when we cleaned so it's pretty nice.” Y/n commented as she took out her wand and then looked at Remus for confirmation.

“I think it’s a good idea go ahead,” he encouraged and she smiled, silently casting spells and bringing up a wall, adding a door to match.

“Who do you think would live down here?” Y/n asked.

“If Bertram ever comes back I imagine he’d like living in the basement, if not we can always give him his room back and move down here,” Remus suggested and Y/n nodded, pleased with that idea.

“Sounds great. So Basement for Bertram, Sirius can have the storage room once I fix it up and then we take Bertram's old room?” She asks and Remus nods taking out his wand.

“What about Harry?” He asks and Y/n’s smile fades.

“We can worry about that if it happens, I'm not getting his room ready just to have him never come here, I've done that with Lily before and doing it again while being uncertain would hurt too much.”

“Okay that's fine, worry about it when it happens, sounds good.”

“Are you gonna bring Bertrams things down here?” She asked and Remus nodded, flicking his wand and making all of Bertram's things move from upstairs perfectly.

Sirius’ room was next but they had no idea where they would get the furniture from, building a wall and moving existing furniture was easy but designing a whole bedroom was a bit more work. They found an old Truck in the garage and took it into town to a thrift store and bought a bunch of second-hand furniture, after giving it a good magical cleaning both Sirius’ room and Y/n and Remus’ were good to go.

After setting up their new room, Remus was sitting on the bed relaxing looking around the colourful and comfy looking space. It was nice to have this place that they could sort of call their own after so long of being on the road and sleeping in cars or motels or the couch.

Y/n crawled up the bed hovering over Remus and placing a teasingly slow kiss on his lips that eventually turned more heated until there was a knock at the door disrupting them both. Y/n pulled away with a wicked smile, “better go see who that is.” She chimed but she was actually very anxious as to what it would be about.

She opened the door quickly, wasting no time in asking who it was, she just wanted to know right away.

Davey Gudgeon stood there, an excited smile on his face clearly bearing good news of some sort.

“Hi Y/n,” he greeted and she opened the door for him to come in.

“Hey, Davey. Is that Bertram’s trial date you have there?” She asked noticing a large amount of paper in his hands.

“Oh yes, I guess I can start with that. So I was going to come here and bring you the Notice of Trial so you could attend but then it got moved up this morning and I didn't have time to contact you. But I have good news! He was charged with willful negligence, which in a nice way means he was charged with being too stupid to know that what he was doing was wrong and his lawyer also used his grandmother's recent death as a reason for stress and rash decision making since he lacked guidance. When he was asked how he would live life without recommitting if he ever got released he stated that he no longer lived alone, he now had two other adults living with him who were smart because they both graduated with honours from Hogwarts. The judge seemed to like that so Bertram got sentenced to five months in a low-security jail in Ireland and then if you sign a deal saying you will be taking up permanent residence here the house will be transferred into yours and Remus’ names and you will be charged with the duty of sort of watching over Bertram, this, however, does not make you liable for any crimes he commits, if he recommits he will probably be sent to Azkaban or something.”

Remus had walked into the room, listening to the news of the trial.

“So I just have to sign here and we get ownership of this cottage  _ and _ Bertram.”

“And all of the things inside as well. But you don't need to sign it now, I’ll leave you with this copy of the trial record and I’ll come by tomorrow to pick it up and see if you guys wanna sign, you won't be forced to of course.”

Remus took the trial record and skimmed through the bound pages. “We will give it a good read through later tonight,” Remus said as he placed the paper on the table beside the couch.

They both expected Davey to leave but instead, he stood there smiling awkwardly unsure of how to say his next piece of news.

“Is there something else?” Y/n asked as she tried to read the document in his hand.

“Yes, it's a long story but it’s about Harry Potter.”

“Is he okay?” Y/n quickly mumbled out in a panicked worry.

‘Yes, we have him in custody right now, he's very safe. We got a call from a neighbour stating that they were worried about his safety, we sent in some Aurors to investigate and they found his living conditions, diet and low levels of interaction to be, well criminal. He's still merely a baby, he's not even two yet. So we took away their custody. His next family member, who honestly should have been chosen before those Muggles ever were, is you Y/n.”

Y/n’s lip quivered, her hands shook at her sides as tears threatened to spill at the thought of getting Harry back, of getting full custody of him. But her heart also broke at the thought of how he was being treated.

“I can have him?” She whispered and Remus came up behind her, wrapping a hand around her lower back and pressing her side into him, he used his other hand to steady her shaking one, offering her silent comfort.

“Yes, Y/n. Just sign here and I can bring him here, bring him home to you, tomorrow.”

She let out a deep breath and a shakey cry, almost falling to the ground, she was so sure she would never get to see Harry again.

“Where do I sign?”

After signing Davey apparated away and Remus was quick to wrap Y/n in a hug, her legs gave out but he was holding her well enough that he held her up.

“I can't believe it.” She whispered against his neck, he barely heard it.

“Neither can I, it’s okay.” He tried to calm her, bringing her down to the couch and then pushing her hair out of her tear-stained face.

She smiled at him and then moved onto her knees and then onto Remus lap, smiling widely at him before going in for a sweet kiss. The kind of kiss where you're just so filled with love you can't help but want to kiss someone, and luckily a kissable someone was right in front of her.

Their kiss was passionate, slow and comfortable, they had gotten pretty good at it now. Nothing like the fast and needy ones they sometimes shared but far past the worried gentle ones they started with.

She didn’t have to worry about whether or not she should kiss him, or if he wanted to kiss her, they were comfortable now, Remus was her home and their home just got bigger with the addition of a much-missed member.

-

Y/n couldn't sleep for the whole night, she was too excited to finally see Harry again. Remus had gotten up at one point and made her drink lavender tea but it did nothing to help. She laid there all night cuddled up to Remus drawing circles on his bare skin as he slept peacefully. The full moon was coming up and he was way too tired to stay awake with her.

They had a long conversation about it all before bed. How safe it would be for Harry here. There were a few things that made the cottage not safe for him, one being the cottage itself filled with secret rooms, nearby water and the forest with many wild things living in it. But also the people were a bit worrisome, in the eyes of a nervous Remus who only wanted the happiest and safest life for his best friends’ son.

Harry would live there with Y/n, who was very safe all around but also with Remus who was everything a great father figure should be but he was also a werewolf. Sirius, if he came back, was an escaped prisoner of Azkaban and the person people blamed for the death of his parents and then Bertram who was a complete mess of a person but would probably make Harry laugh more than anyone so he would be great, in a few months when he gets out of prison of course.

Y/n and Remus had ultimately decided the werewolf thing would not be an issue like it would have been before. They were no longer living poverty since they took over Bertram’s  _ legal side _ of his potions business and it also meant that they could brew their own wolfsbane, there was also a room in the basement they sectioned of for Remus to go in during full moons, with two charmed locks for Harry's safety, if he is anything like his dad he will try to find his way to sneak in there.

Everything was good, it was getting better but feeling okay brought a pang of guilt to Y/n’s heart as she laid there in bed overthinking everything.

It wasn't fair in the slightest. Lily and James died, they had their happiness stolen from them and there was nothing Y/n could do to make that right. What did she get out of it? She lost everyone she loved dearly at first but since then she has managed to fall in love, make two new close friends and she even gets Harry back, how is it fair that after James and Lily lost everything Y/n gained it all. 

Not to say she didn't have it before, she was content having James and Lily in her life and she would give up this life for her old one in a second if she could, if she could bring James and Lily back. But she had to accept that the past had happened and it couldn’t be changed and she was making the best of it, for them. She would raise their son in a loving home, she would make sure he knew how much his parents loved him, she would tell him everything about them when he asked. She hoped to do them justice.

-

The morning was a blur, Y/n was running on mere minutes of sleep and however many cups of tea Remus had brought her and placed in her tired hands. Her eyes drooped as she sat sideways on the couch watching the door.

“You look exhausted, maybe you should sleep and I’ll wake you up when they get here?”

“No.” She argued shaking her head slowly. “I’ll sleep when he gets here.”

“I know Harry isn’t exactly a baby anymore he was a little over one year old when we last saw him a few months ago, he’s almost two now and I've heard two-year-olds don't enjoy sleeping all that much.”

“That's what you’re for!” She teased as she leaned up kissing his scruffy cheek.

Before he could further try to convince her to go get some sleep there was a knock on the door and Y/n jumped up opening it quickly to see Harry in Davey’s arms and a small bag beside him.

Tears welled in her eyes at the sight of him, he was still so small, he looked too tiny like he hadn’t been given enough food for the few months he was with the Dursley’s.

She opened her arms and Harry’s eyes lit up, seeing a familiar face he reached his arms out for her to hold him and she choked out a cry.

She lifted her finger up and he wrapped his small hand around it.

“Hi, Harry.” She cooed softly and he smiled widely up at her.

He mumbled bits of her name and she tried to keep her composure, so glad that he remembered her, so grateful to have him in her arms.

Davey walked into the house after Y/n had brought Harry to sit with her on the couch completely ignoring the two men behind her.

“So she already signed the custody agreement and all his documents are in his bag, and whatever clothes the Dursleys gave with him but there's really not much in there. You can fill out this form here to have access to his bank account but all withdrawn amounts need to be approved by whoever at Gringotts manages his account. Now did you guys decide about signing the thing for Bertram's release?” Davey asked and Remus nodded.

“Yeah, do we both need to sign it?” Remus asked and Davey shook his head handing Remus the pen and he happily signed the document that he read over three times last night.

“Now I'm told he didn't sleep at all last night, though I'm sure you guys are better suited to care for him-” Davey said before Remus interrupted looking on the couch to see Y/n had lied down with Harry in her arms and both had fallen asleep rather quickly, thanks to their lack of sleep in the night and the clear comfort they got from each other. 

“I think we will be just fine,” he commented, not wanting to think about how long it had been since Harry had been held so lovingly like that.

Davey left shortly after and Remus grabbed a blanket from the bed and wrapped it over the two, closing the curtains to block out the light, he would let them sleep for a bit before waking them up for dinner.

-

Y/n woke up before Harry did, waking up on the couch warm and comfortable with her best friends son, her baby cousin in her arms. She brushed his already ridiculously messy hair out of his face, tracing her finger ever so gently across his new scar. She felt the tears build in her eyes, a mixture of happiness from holding him finally, happiness that he was hers to protect now and sadness still and always that James and Lily weren't there to do this themselves.

She’s grateful, she had the worst baby fever ever since Lily told her she was pregnant, she thought it would be years before she actually had a baby of her own, and though Harry wasn't really hers he was still her blood, and she would still love him like he was 100% her own child, any children she had later in life would mean just as much as Harry does to her, not more, not less, just love.

She brought a hand to cover her eyes as she tried to stop the tears from streaming down her face, trying to calm her breathing.

Remus noticed the movement of her arm from where he was sitting across the room and immediately got up and walked over kneeling beside the couch.

He took her hand in his and kissed it gently before wiping her tears away.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He cooed, looking at Harry who was still happily asleep.

“I know.” She tried to say without making herself cry harder.

“Why don't we get up and eat some dinner, if you sleep all evening you’ll be up by midnight.”

She just nodded, offered Remus a weak smile as she carefully sat up moving Harry gently but also enough to wake him.

He wrapped his arms around her tighter and rubbed his face against her shirt which made her heart melt.

“Hey Harry honey,” She whispered lovingly to him, looking down at him with a teary face and a wide smile.

Remus walked away to get them some food but looked over every few minutes to make sure the two on the couch didn't fall back asleep.

After dinner they went back to bed, Y/n brought Harry in their bed with them, carefully letting him sleep between them. Harry had probably felt so alone and scared for so long, he could use a night of warmth and comfort and a feeling of security. Tomorrow night he would have to sleep on his own again, but never too far away.

-

Sirius had fallen asleep in the forest waiting for Harry to finally arrive and for the Auror to leave so he could go back inside and discuss what they would do now. He didn’t know that Remus and Y/n had gotten a room for him ready, one hidden from the Ministry so he could safely hide from them but also be able to live with his friends, the people he loves most in the world.

When he woke up the sun was rising but it was very early, there was frost covering everything and it was cold enough to snow later in the day.

He shook the frost off his fur and slowly padded over to the house, he quietly crept in through the dog door they had added just for him and sniffed around the house. He figured out Y/n and Remus were in their room as he got closer to the door he also smelled someone he hadn't in so long, his paws almost gave out when he realized Harry was finally there, and not in his own room but sleeping with Y/n and Remus. 

Sirius sniffed around the rest of the house until he figured it safe enough to change back into his human self and make some pancakes for everyone. He was sad to realize he hadn’t smelt this new person they mentioned, he hadn't heard what happened to him, last he knew he was being held by the Ministry until they figured out his trial.

As he mixed the ingredients all together he couldn’t help but reflect on his childhood, growing up with his horrid family, unable to save himself for so long and then once he could get out, having to leave his brother behind. That would be the last time that he would ever leave someone, especially someone he was meant to protect, in a terrible situation like that. 

It’s why he risked his life, risked being caught, to go convince a neighbour to report that Harry was being mistreated. Thankfully it worked, the bloody muggles wouldn't ever even see Harry again, never the less would they lie to him, hurt him, or do any of the horrible things they could have done to him.

He was distracted from his thoughts when he heard the door creep open and a few mumbled whines.

Y/n froze in her spot making Remus walk into her back.

Sirius Black was standing in their kitchen making breakfast with a stupid proud and happy grin covering his face.

He lifted the spoon, letting the mix drip onto the counter, “Pancakes anyone?”

-

There was a lot of crying that followed that moment. Sirius crying quietly as Y/n offered Harry to him, while Remus took over making breakfast. Happy tears of course.

Sirius felt himself calming down as Y/n hugged him, letting him know that she was so thankful, glad he was safe and most of all that she had missed him and she was glad that he was  _ home _ .

More tears came to his eyes when they showed him the room they had for him and told him that they wanted him to stay.

Their little weird family was almost complete, in a few months, Bertram would be home too. Once they were all together again they could focus on their small potions business to get by. Then they could focus on clearing Sirius’ name. 

Eventually, before they even knew it Harry would be going to Hogwarts, it seemed everything was finally okay, and they all hoped it would stay that way, but even if it didn't, they had each other and that was what mattered. There would never be another time when one of them would have to ask themselves, “What do  _ I  _ do now?” They would forever ask each other, “What do  _ we _ do now?”

FIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who read this story! I really hope you liked it, if you want more stories like this I take requests through Tumblr @swellwriting and i have MANY more fics there to enjoy!!   
> Please let me know what you think of the ending! I'm a sucker for happy endings if u couldn't tell! :)


End file.
